Ferroelectric polarization enabled spatially selective adsorption of redox mediators to promote Z-scheme photocatalytic overall water splitting

Although the artificial Z-scheme system, mimicking natural photosyn-thesis, has shown promising applications in photocatalytic water split-ting, it often suffers from the side reaction of redox mediator, which considerably undermines the efficacy of photocarrier utilizations. Herein, we propose to suppress the side reaction by using ferroelec-tric polarization, which not only provides a strong driving force to spatially separate photocarriers to the oppositely poled surface but also induces spatially selective adsorption of redox ions. Single -domain ferroelectric PbTiO3 nanoplates have been adopted as a model ferroelectric to construct the Z-scheme system with BiVO4 par-ticles and a cationic redox mediator. In contrast to the inactive multi -domain ferroelectric PbTiO3-based system, the so-formed Z-scheme system delivers stable high activity for photocatalytic overall water splitting under both visible light and simulated solar insolation. This work offers a proof of concept to realize efficient solar photocatalytic water splitting based on single-domain ferroelectric Z-scheme system.

Automated summary

This research proposes to suppress the side reaction of redox mediator in photocatalytic water splitting by using ferroelectric polarization. By constructing a Z-scheme system with single-domain ferroelectric nanoplates, stable high activity for photocatalytic overall water splitting is achieved.