Multi‐Site Contact Schottky Junctions with Improved Light Adsorption Enable Efficient Carrier Transport for Photoelectrocatalytic Water Oxidation

ABSTRACT Photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) water splitting enables sustainable solar‐to‐hydrogen conversion, yet bismuth tungstate (Bi 2 WO 6 ) photoanodes suffer from severe charge recombination. Herein, we rationally design a novel multi‐site contact Schottky junction with modulated interfacial electronic structure and multi‐site charge transport channels by integrating 2D Fe‐doped Bi 2 WO 6 (Fe‐BWO) nanosheets with 3D RuCu co‐doped WC (RuCu‐WC) dodecahedra. The polyhedral scaffold forms multiple discrete yet intimate contact points at its vertices and edges, constructing abundant parallel electron extraction channels. The introduction of Fe broaden the light harvesting efficiency endowing with an improved interfacial carrier density. Driven by the large work function difference, a strong interfacial built‐in electric field is established, which unidirectionally drives photogenerated electrons from band‐narrowed Fe‐BWO into the interconnected 3D RuCu‐WC conductive network while spatially confining photogenerated holes on the Fe‐BWO basal plane to drive the water oxidation reaction. The optimized photoanode delivers an exceptional photocurrent density of 7.40 mA cm −2 at 1.23 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) with 66.1% charge transfer efficiency. The assembled PEC water splitting cell achieves a remarkable photocurrent density of 6.39 mA cm −2 at 1.23 V and a solar‐to‐hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency of 5.59%. This work provides a generalizable strategy for enhancing charge separation in semiconductor‐based energy conversion systems.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Published
2026-10-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.79379
Primary Topic
Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Multi‐Site Contact Schottky Junctions with Improved Light Adsorption Enable Efficient Carrier Transport for Photoelectrocatalytic Water Oxidation

Yongqiang Feng, Jianfeng Huang, Fa-hai Luo, Dewei Chu et al.
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Advanced Functional Materials
Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
article

Multi‐Site Contact Schottky Junctions with Improved Light Adsorption Enable Efficient Carrier Transport for Photoelectrocatalytic Water Oxidation

Yongqiang Feng, Jianfeng Huang, Fa-hai Luo, Dewei Chu, Liangliang Feng, Qingqing Liu, Haijun Ma, Junle Dong, Liyun cao, Xingang Kong, Yijun Liu
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) water splitting enables sustainable solar‐to‐hydrogen conversion, yet bismuth tungstate (Bi 2 WO 6 ) photoanodes suffer from severe charge recombination. Herein, we rationally design a novel multi‐site contact Schottky junction with modulated interfacial electronic structure and multi‐site charge transport channels by integrating 2D Fe‐doped Bi 2 WO 6 (Fe‐BWO) nanosheets with 3D RuCu co‐doped WC (RuCu‐WC) dodecahedra. The polyhedral scaffold forms multiple discrete yet intimate contact points at its vertices and edges, constructing abundant parallel electron extraction channels. The introduction of Fe broaden the light harvesting efficiency endowing with an improved interfacial carrier density. Driven by the large work function difference, a strong interfacial built‐in electric field is established, which unidirectionally drives photogenerated electrons from band‐narrowed Fe‐BWO into the interconnected 3D RuCu‐WC conductive network while spatially confining photogenerated holes on the Fe‐BWO basal plane to drive the water oxidation reaction. The optimized photoanode delivers an exceptional photocurrent density of 7.40 mA cm −2 at 1.23 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) with 66.1% charge transfer efficiency. The assembled PEC water splitting cell achieves a remarkable photocurrent density of 6.39 mA cm −2 at 1.23 V and a solar‐to‐hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency of 5.59%. This work provides a generalizable strategy for enhancing charge separation in semiconductor‐based energy conversion systems.

Advanced Functional Materials
Ningxia University (CN), UNSW Sydney (AU), Shaanxi University of Science and Technology (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Affordable and clean energy, Clean water and sanitation
Openalex Percentile: Top 35%
Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
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