GRAPHENE AS AN ELECTRON MEDIATOR IN TANTALUM OXYNITRIDE BASED COMPOSITES Z-SCHEM PHOTOCATALYTIC WATER SPLITTING

摘要

Increasing of electron-hole separation is crucial to the improvement in the activity of photocatalyst. Photosynthesis involving the Z-scheme mechanism provides a unique process to utilize the solar energy through effective electron hole pair separation. The effectiveness of graphene as an electron mediator for water splitting in the Z-scheme photocatalysis system is demonstrated. We show that graphene can shuttle photogenerated electrons from the TaON to CdS, hindering the rapid recombination of electron hole pairs and enhancing photocatalytic activities in the water splitting reaction under visible-light irradiation.