Direct Z-scheme photocatalytic systems based on vdW heterostructures for water splitting and CO₂ reduction: fundamentals and recent advances

Abstract

Photocatalytic water splitting and CO₂ reduction are conducive to alleviating the increasingly serious environmental problems and ever-tightening energy problems. Among various modification strategies, constructing Z-scheme heterostructures and direct Z-scheme heterostructures, in particular, by mimicking natural photosynthesis, has been widely researched for the effective separation of photogenerated electrons and holes with strong redox ability. However, a low lattice matching degree of different semiconductors often results in serious crystal defects in the composite. Fortunately, van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures constructed through interlayer weak vdW interactions provide a remedy, which not only can ensure the high quality of Z-scheme heterostructures but also preserve the original properties of individual components and induces new properties at the heterogeneous interfaces. Herein, we introduce the fundamentals of direct Z-scheme vdW heterostructure and review the last five-year progress of direct Z-scheme vdW heterostructures for photocatalytic water splitting and CO₂ reduction, highlighting the characteristics and fundamental modification principles of different heterostructures, aiming to provide informative principles for the design of advanced heterostructure photocatalysts for solar energy conversion.

Keywords

Water splitting / CO₂ reduction / photocatalysis / direct Z-scheme heterostructure / van der Waals heterostructure

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