Zhengbo Jiao

Selective growth of Ag3PO4 submicro-cubes on Ag nanowires to fabricate necklace-like heterostructures for photocatalytic applications

Selective growth of Ag3PO4 submicro-cubes on Ag nanowires to construct necklace-like hetero-photocatalysts has been demonstrated. This novel hetero-structure exhibits much higher activities than both pure Ag3PO4 cubes and Ag nanowires for degradation of organic contaminants under visible light irradiation, which may be primarily ascribed to highly efficient charge separation at the contact interfaces as well as rapid electron export through Ag nanowires.

Facile synthesis of tetrahedral Ag3PO4 submicro-crystals with enhanced photocatalytic properties

Tetrahedral Ag3PO4 submicro-crystals have been fabricated in high-yield by directly reacting commercial Ag foils with H2O2 and NaH2PO4 in aqueous solution at room temperature, which exhibit higher photocatalytic activities than Ag3PO4 cubes, particles, and N-doped TiO2 for the degradation of organic contaminants under visible light irradiation.

Selective Growth of Metallic Ag Nanocrystals on Ag3PO4 Submicro‐Cubes for Photocatalytic Applications

Thinking outside the box: The position- and number-selective growth of Ag nanocrystals on Ag(3)PO(4) submicro-cubes by an in situ reduction technique is demonstrated (see figure). These new Ag/Ag(3)PO(4) heterocubes exhibit higher photocatalytic activities than pure Ag(3)PO(4) cubes for the degradation of organic dyes under visible-light irradiation.

Visible-light-driven photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic performances of Cr-doped SrTiO3/TiO2 heterostructured nanotube arrays

Well-aligned TiO2 nanotube arrays have become of increasing significance because of their unique highly ordered array structure, high specific surface area, unidirectional charge transfer and transportation features. However, their poor visible light utilization as well as the high recombination rate of photoexcited electron-hole pairs greatly limited their practical applications. Herein, we demonstrate the fabrication of visible-light-responsive heterostructured Cr-doped SrTiO3/TiO2 nanotube arrays by a simple hydrothermal method, which facilitate efficient charge separation and thus improve the photoelectrochemical as well as photocatalytic performances.

Facile and Rapid Oxidation Fabrication of BiOCl Hierarchical Nanostructures with Enhanced Photocatalytic Properties

the “Hundred Talents Program” of the Chinese Academy of Science;the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21273255;21173242);973 Program;863 Program of China (2012AA051501;2009CB22003;2009AA05Z117;2012CB7209001)

Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Ag/Ag3PO4 coaxial hetero-nanowires

Herein, we demonstrate a facile and general process for fabricating uniform and perfect Ag/Ag3PO4 core–shell coaxial hetero-nanowires at room temperature, which exhibit excellent photocatalytic activities for degradation of organic contaminants under visible light irradiation.

Direct conversion of Bi nanospheres into 3D flower-like BiOBr nanoarchitectures with enhanced photocatalytic properties

Herein, we demonstrate for the first time the direct conversion of metallic Bi nanospheres into three-dimensional (3D) flower-like BiOBr nanoarchitectures at room temperature, which exhibited much higher photocatalytic performance for the photodegradation of organic dyes than 2D BiOBr nanoplates under visible light irradiation.

TiO2 Nanotube Arrays Modified with Cr-Doped SrTiO3 Nanocubes for Highly Efficient Hydrogen Evolution under Visible Light

In recent decades, solar-driven hydrogen production over semiconductors has attracted tremendous interest owing to the global energy and environmental crisis. Among various semiconductor materials, TiO2 exhibits outstanding photocatalytic properties and has been extensively applied in diverse photocatalytic and photoelectric systems. However, two major drawbacks limit practical applications, namely, high charge-recombination rate and poor visible-light utilization. In this work, heterostructured TiO2 nanotube arrays grafted with Cr-doped SrTiO3 nanocubes were fabricated by simply controlling the kinetics of hydrothermal reactions. It was found that coupling TiO2 nanotube arrays with regular SrTiO3 nanocubes can significantly improve the charge separation. Meanwhile, doping Cr cations into SrTiO3 nanocubes proved to be an effective and feasible approach to enhance remarkably the visible-light response, which was also confirmed by theoretical calculations. As a result, the rate of photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution of these novel heteronanostructures is an order of magnitude larger than those of TiO2 nanotube arrays and other previously reported SrTiO3 /TiO2 nanocomposites under visible-light irradiation. Furthermore, the as-prepared Cr-doped SrTiO3 /TiO2 heterostructures exhibit excellent durability and stability, which are favorable for practical hydrogen production and photoelectric nanodevices.

Ion exchange synthesis of PAN/Ag3PO4 core-shell nanofibers with enhanced photocatalytic properties

PAN/Ag3PO4 core–shell hetero-nanofibers have been fabricated for the first time by combining electrospinning technology with ion exchange reaction, which exhibit much higher visible light driven photocatalytic activities for the degradation of organic contaminants than pure Ag3PO4 nanoparticles.

Photo-directed growth of Au nanowires on ZnO arrays for enhancing photoelectrochemical performances

Herein, we demonstrate that ZnO nanowire arrays could be rationally connected with each other by thin Au nanowires to construct a novel cross-linked hetero-structure by a simple photo-directed growth strategy. Moreover, a possible formation mechanism of this Au/ZnO hierarchical nanostructure has been proposed. In the case of light irradiation, the rapid electron enrichment on the top (002) facets of ZnO nanowires will result in a high concentration of holes on the side facets, which could generate a positive electric field. As a result of the electronegativity, [Au(OH)xCl4−x]− (where x = 0–4) anions could be pulled in by this electric field and reduced on the side facets of ZnO nanowires, and the Au nanowires could be gradually formed through an exact opposite point growth route. Furthermore, the photoelectrochemical performance studies clearly reveal that these novel cross-linked hetero-arrays exhibit much higher visible light photocurrent density than both pure ZnO nanowire arrays and traditional Au nanoparticle/ZnO nanowire heterostructures, which may be primarily ascribed to the efficient electron transfer from Au nanostructures to ZnO nanowires.