Mingjuan Sun

CuI as Hole-Transport Channel for Enhancing Photoelectrocatalytic Activity by Constructing CuI/BiOI Heterojunction

In this paper, CuI, as a typical hole-transport channel, was used to construct a high-performance visible-light-driven CuI/BiOI heterostructure for photoelectrocatalytic applications. The heterostructure combines the broad visible absorption of BiOI and high hole mobility of CuI. Compared to pure BiOI, the CuI/BiOI heterostructure exhibited distinctly enhanced photoelectrocatalytic performance for the oxidation of methanol and organic pollutants under visible-light irradiation. The photogenerated electron-hole pairs of the excited BiOI can be separated efficiently through CuI, in which the CuI acts as a superior hole-transport channel to improve photoelectrocatalytic oxidization of methanol and organic pollutants. The outstanding photoelectrocatalytic activity shows that the p-type CuI works as a promising hole-transport channel to improve the photocatalytic performance of traditional semiconductors.

Plasmon enhanced electrocatalytic oxidation of ethanol and organic contaminants on gold/copper iodide composites under visible light irradiation

In this paper, plasmonic photoelectroncatalyst of gold/copper iodide (Au/CuI) was synthesized and fully characterized. Compared to traditional electrocatalytic procedure under dark condition, the photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) activities of Au/CuI towards ethanol oxidation and organic pollutant degradation were distinctly enhanced under visible light irradiation. The advantages of the PEC process were investigated by photocurrent responses, linear sweep voltammetry, chronoamperometric and chronopotentiometry curves, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy spectra. Finally, the mechanism of plasmon enhanced PEC performance in ethanol oxidation and organic contaminant degradation under visible light irradiation was proposed. The current studies open a new possibility in the application of ethanol oxidation and organic contaminant degradation by using plasmonic photoelectrocatalysts under visible light irradiation.