Development of a novel Ba2BiV3O11 photocatalyst with dual functions of both water oxidation and proton reduction performance.

ABSTRACT

To overcome the limitation of photocatalysts with dual functionality of water oxidation and proton reduction, we proposed a novel bismuth-based Ba2BiV3O11 (BBVO) photocatalyst, which can simultaneously drive the proton reduction reaction under UV light and water oxidation reaction under visible light. After doping with sulfur through an in situ vulcanization strategy, the light absorption and charge separation efficiencies of the sulfur-doped BBVO were significantly improved, thus boosting its oxygen evolution activity (64 µmol h-1) by more than 16 times compared with independent BBVO. The experimental results demonstrate that BBVO can be employed as a very promising bismuth-based photocatalyst for solar energy conversion.