Preparation of Au-OVs-BiOBr-P25 Z-scheme photocatalyst and its photocatalytic performance in overall water splitting

Z-scheme photocatalyst holds great promise in photocatalytic H₂ evolution. In this work, a ternary Au-OVs-BiOBr-P25 Z-scheme photocatalyst with oxygen vacancies was successfully prepared, in which Au nanoparticles were used as the electron mediators to introduce into BiOBr and P25. The photocatalytic activity of this ternary photocatalyst was evaluated by overall water splitting. The H₂ evolution rate of Au-OVs-BiOBr-P25 achieves an amazing value of 384 μmol/(g·h) under UV-vis irradiation. UV-vis DRS and transient photocurrent spectra revealed that the enhanced photocatalytic activity of Au-OVs-BiOBr-P25 was mainly attributed to its widened photo-response range and effective carrier separation. Furthermore, the photocatalytic mechanism was systematically studied by EPR and Photoelectrochemical measurements, which indicated that the overall water splitting occurred through the two-electron pathway. This result will provide us new ideas for developing more efficient photocatalysts for photocatalytic H₂ evolution.