Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting and Photocatalytic Oxidation
This community develops semiconductor materials and devices that use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, or to drive chemical reactions for wastewater treatment.
The work centers on engineering oxide thin films, particularly bismuth vanadate and copper oxide, to act as photoanodes. Researchers focus on enhancing charge separation and transfer kinetics through heterojunctions, oxygen vacancies, and surface modifications. A significant portion of the literature addresses the oxygen evolution reaction and hydrogen generation, while a parallel strand applies these photocatalytic mechanisms to the degradation of organic pollutants and the production of disinfectants from seawater.
The largest share of the community's output is found in bismuth research, accounting for 5.3% of all bismuth papers, and vanadium research, accounting for 4.6% of all vanadium papers. The community contains 17,108 papers, publishing most frequently in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, and Applied Surface Science.
Recent work continues to refine bismuth vanadate photoanodes for water oxidation and explores photoelectrochemical systems for producing chlorine disinfectants from seawater and treating organic wastewater.