ENHANCED PHOTOCATALYSIS ON TIO2- PASSIVATED III-V COMPOUNDS FOR WATER SPLITTING AND CO2 REDUCTION

摘要

III-V compounds, such as GaP, GaAs, and InP are of great interest for their potential in efficient photocatalytic water splitting and CO2 reduction under visible light illumination. However, their electro-chemical instability severely limits their applicability in photocatlaysis. TiO2, on the other hand, has attracted a vast majority of the research interests in this area due to its chemical robustness over a wide range of pH. However, its wide band gap of 3.2eV can only absorb ~4% of the solar spectrum, and thus will never provide efficient solar energy conversion/storage on its own.