材料期刊网

"结"的构筑,被证实是提高电荷分离效率的重要策略,在太阳电池、光催化等领域有广泛应用.跟踪研究异质结、异相结处的电荷转移动力学,可深入认识结的作用,进一步指导新材料、新结构的设计合成.锐钛矿/金红石TiO2异相结,可大大提高TiO2光催化重整生物质制氢的产氢性能.锐钛矿/金红石异相结处的电荷分离、复合等动力学行为还亟需进一步深入研究,我们使用时间分辨发光光谱技术,重点研究了锐钛矿和金红石界面处的电荷转移过程及其对电荷复合过程的影响机制.我们制备了一系列具有不同晶相组成的TiO2催化剂,使用XRD和表面灵敏的紫外拉曼光谱表征确定了样品的表面和体相组成,研究其光致发光性质并与其晶相组成相关联.发现,TiO2的发光行为与其晶相结构直接相关,特别是与其表面晶相结构存在密切关系.其中,500 nm的可见发光带与锐钛矿晶相相关,而835 nm的近红外发光带与金红石晶相相关.分析可见发光带强度随TiO2晶相组成的变化,发现TiO2粒子中存在少量金红石成分时,可见发光带强度不仅未猝灭,反而有一个明显的增强效应,同时,近红外发光峰的出现也存在一定的延后现象.这些结果表明锐钛矿/金红石异相结处存在金红石向锐钛矿的电荷转移过程.进一步,使用时间分辨发光光谱研究可见发光带和近红外发光带的衰减动力学,从而分析揭示锐钛矿/金红石相结对锐钛矿和金红石的载流子动力学的影响机制.对于可见发光带来说,锐钛矿/金红石异相结的存在使可见发光带的衰减速率在微秒时间尺度减慢,而在毫秒时间尺度反而衰减变快.在金红石为主要晶相的混相氧化钛中(如TiO2-800),还观测到了一个新的约0.43μs的快衰减成分,表明锐钛矿向金红石的载流子转移过程.对于近红外发光带来说,与可见发光带类似,在微秒时间尺度的衰减也明显变慢,寿命可增长一倍以上,而在毫秒时间尺度的衰减速率没有明显变化.特别是,在锐钛矿/金红石异相结存在条件下,除长于40μs的微秒衰减成分外,基本所有混相TiO2样品都显示出~2μs的快衰减成分,且此快衰减成分的比例受样品晶相组成、制备方法等影响,可达到22%左右.这一快衰减成分的出现,证明了锐钛矿/金红石异相结处存在金红石向锐钛矿的载流子转移过程.我们通过发光光谱技术研究了锐钛矿/金红石异相结在电荷分离复合过程中的作用.研究发现,锐钛矿/金红石相结存在条件下,可见和近红外发光带都出现了一个新的快衰减成分,证明相结处存在快速的电荷分离过程.由于相结促进电荷分离,在微秒时间尺度抑制了电荷复合,从而使发光衰减明显变慢.而在毫秒时间尺度,电荷复合速率并没有抑制效果.因此,我们提出锐钛矿/金红石相结对光催化活性的促进作用,主要是因为微秒时间尺度促进电荷的有效分离,从而使微秒时间尺度存在更大量的光生电荷参与光催化过程.

Junctions are an important structure that allows charge separation in solar cells and photocatalysts. Here, we studied the charge transfer at an anatase/rutile TiO2 phase junction using time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. Visible (~500 nm) and near-infrared (NIR, ~830 nm) emissions were monitored to give insight into the photoinduced charges of anatase and rutile in the junction, respectively. New fast photoluminescence decay components appeared in the visible emission of rutile-phase dominated TiO2 and in the NIR emission of many mixed phase TiO2samples. The fast decays confirmed that the charge separation occurred at the phase junction. The visible emission intensity from the mixed phase TiO2increased, revealing that charge transfer from rutile to anatase was the main pathway. The charge separation slowed the microsecond time scale photolumines-cence decay rate for charge carriers in both anatase and rutile. However, the millisecond decay of the charge carriers in anatase TiO2 was accelerated, while there was almost no change in the charge carrier dynamics of rutile TiO2. Thus, charge separation at the anatase/rutile phase junction caused an increase in the charge carrier concentration on a microsecond time scale, because of slower electron-hole recombination. The enhanced photocatalytic activity previously observed at ana-tase/rutile phase junctions is likely caused by the improved charge carrier dynamics we report here. These findings may contribute to the development of improved photocatalytic materials.