Selective construction of junctions on different facets of BiVO₄ for enhancing photo-activity

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P>A novel ternary Ag/BiVO<SUB>4</SUB>/Co<SUB>3</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB> hybrid photocatalyst was designed by constructing a metal–semiconductor junction and a p–n junction on electron-rich {010} facets and hole-rich {110} facets of BiVO<SUB>4</SUB>, respectively. The Ag/BiVO<SUB>4</SUB>/Co<SUB>3</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB> hybrid photocatalyst exhibits enhanced photocatalytic activity for rhodamine B degradation, which is over 8 times that of bare BiVO<SUB>4</SUB> under simulated solar light. It was proven that the combination of a metal–semiconductor junction and a p–n junction further promotes the charge transferring across the interface, and results in an additional effect of two single junctions for improving photo-activity. This research provides a deep insight about the co-working mechanism between the two heterojunctions, and it will propose a new concept for designing a highly efficient photo-catalyst system.</P>

<P>Graphic Abstract</P><P>The combination of p–n and m–s junctions over BiVO<SUB>4</SUB> results in an additional effect for improving photo-activity.
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