Double-shelled hollow rods assembled from nitrogen/sulfur-codoped carbon coated indium oxide nanoparticles as excellent photocatalysts.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31118411.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-10302-0 and PMC identifier 6531469.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Excellent catalytic activity, high stability and easy recovery are three key elements for fabricating efficient photocatalysts, while developing a simple method to fabricate such photocatalysts with these three features at the same time is highly challenging. In this study, we successfully synthesized double-shelled hollow rods (DHR) assembled by nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S)-codoped carbon coated indium(III) oxide (In<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>) ultra-small nanoparticles (N,S-C/In<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> DHR). N,S-C/In<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> DHR exhibits remarkable photocatalytic activity, high stability and easy recovery for oxidative hydroxylation reaction of arylboronic acid substrates. The catalyst recovery and surface area were well balanced through improved light harvesting, contributed by concurrently enhancing the reflection on the outer porous shell and the diffraction in the inside double-shelled hollow structure, and increased separation rate of photogenerated carriers. Photocatalytic mechanism was investigated to identify the main reactive species in the catalytic reactions. The electron separation and transfer pathway via N,S-codoped graphite/In<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> interface was revealed by theoretical calculations.