Liquid metal-embraced photoactive films for artificial photosynthesis.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38395923.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-46073-6 and PMC identifier 10891066.
- 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
The practical applications of solar-driven water splitting pivot on significant advances that enable scalable production of robust photoactive films. Here, we propose a proof-of-concept for fabricating robust photoactive films by a particle-implanting technique (PiP) which embeds semiconductor photoabsorbers in the liquid metal. The strong semiconductor/metal interaction enables resulting films efficient collection of photogenerated charges and superior photoactivity. A photoanode of liquid-metal embraced BiVO<sub>4</sub> can stably operate over 120 h and retain ~ 70% of activity when scaled from 1 to 64 cm<sup>2</sup>. Furthermore, a Z-scheme photocatalyst film of liquid-metal embraced BiVO<sub>4</sub> and Rh-doped SrTiO<sub>3</sub> particles can drive overall water splitting under visible light, delivering an activity 2.9 times higher than that of the control film with gold support and a 110 h stability. These results demonstrate the advantages of the PiP technique in constructing robust and efficient photoactive films for artificial photosynthesis.