Carbon dots/Bi2WO6 composite with compensatory photo-electronic effect for overall water photo-splitting at normal pressure

Overall water photo-splitting is a prospective ideal pathway to produce ultra-clean H2 energy by semiconductors. However, the band structure of many semiconductors cannot satisfy the requirement of H2 and O2 production at the same time. Herein, we illustrate that carbon dots (CDs)/Bi2WO6 photocatalyst with compensatory photo-electronic effect has enhanced activity for overall water photo-splitting without any sacrificial agent. In this complex photocatalytic system, the photo-potential provided by CDs makes the CDs/Bi2WO6 (C-BWO) composite could satisfy the band structure conditions for overall water photo-splitting. The C-BWO composite (3 wt% CDs content) exhibits optimized hydrogen evolution (oxygen evolution) of 0.28 μmol/h (0.12 μmol/h) with an approximate 2:1 (H2:O2) stoichiometry at normal pressure. We further employed the in-situ transient photovoltage (TPV) technique to study the photoelectron extraction and the interface charge transfer kinetics of this composite catalyst.