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Abstract Bi 3 TiNbO 9, a layered ferroelectric photocatalyst, exhibits great potential for overall water splitting through efficient intralayer separation of photogenerated carriers motivated by a depolarization field along the in-plane a -axis. However, the poor interlayer transport of carriers along the out-of-plane c -axis, caused by the significant potential barrier between layers, leads to a high probability of carrier recombination and consequently results in low photocatalytic activity. Here, we have developed an efficient photocatalyst consisting of Bi 3 TiNbO 9 nanosheets with a gradient tungsten (W) doping along the c -axis. This results in the generation of an additional electric field along the c -axis and simultaneously enhances the magnitude of depolarization field within the layers along the a -axis due to strengthened structural distortion. The combination of the built-in field along the c -axis and polarization along the a -axis can effectively facilitate the anisotropic migration of photogenerated electrons and holes to the basal 001 surface and lateral 110 surface of the nanosheets, respectively, enabling desirable spatial separation of carriers. Hence, the W-doped Bi 3 TiNbO 9 ferroelectric photocatalyst with Rh/Cr 2 O 3 cocatalyst achieves an efficient and durable overall water splitting feature, thereby providing an effective pathway for designing excellent layered ferroelectric photocatalysts.
Huang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.