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Z-Scheme Water Splitting into H2 and O2 Under Visible Light

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Nanostructured Photocatalysts

Part of the book series: Nanostructure Science and Technology ((NST))

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Abstract

The development of water-splitting systems that can harvest a wide range of visible light has been, for many years, a major challenge to realize efficient conversion of solar light to hydrogen. Recently a new type of photocatalysis system that can split water into H2 and O2 under visible light irradiation has been developed, by mimicking the two-step photoexcitation (Z-scheme) mechanism of natural photosynthesis in green plants. In this system, the water-splitting reaction is broken into two stages: one for H2 evolution and the other for O2 evolution; these are combined by using a shuttle redox couple (Red/Ox) in the solution. The introduction of a Z-scheme mechanism reduces the energy required to drive each photocatalysis process, extending the usable wavelengths significantly (∼660 nm for H2 evolution and ∼600 nm for O2 evolution) from that in conventional water-splitting systems (~460 nm) based on one-step photoexcitation in a single semiconductor material.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Energy and Hydrocarbon Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, A2 Kyoto University Katsura, Nishigyo-ku, Kyoto, 615-8510, Japan

    Ryu Abe

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  1. Ryu Abe
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Correspondence to Ryu Abe .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Osaka University, Osaka, Osaka, Japan

    Hiromi Yamashita

  2. Department of Chemistry, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China

    Hexing Li

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Abe, R. (2016). Z-Scheme Water Splitting into H2 and O2 Under Visible Light. In: Yamashita, H., Li, H. (eds) Nanostructured Photocatalysts. Nanostructure Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26079-2_25

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