Double-shelled hollow rods assembled from nitrogen/sulfur-codoped carbon coated indium oxide nanoparticles as excellent photocatalysts

Excellent catalytic activity, high stability and easy recovery are three key elements for fabricating efficient photocatalysts, while developing a simple method to fabricate such photocatalysts with these three features at the same time is highly challenging. In this study, we successfully synthesiz...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sun, Liming, Li, Rong, Zhan, Wenwen, Yuan, Yusheng, Wang, Xiaojun, Han, Xiguang, Zhao, Yanli
Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/86131
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/49859
Description
Summary:Excellent catalytic activity, high stability and easy recovery are three key elements for fabricating efficient photocatalysts, while developing a simple method to fabricate such photocatalysts with these three features at the same time is highly challenging. In this study, we successfully synthesized double-shelled hollow rods (DHR) assembled by nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S)-codoped carbon coated indium(III) oxide (In2O3) ultra-small nanoparticles (N,S-C/In2O3 DHR). N,S-C/In2O3 DHR exhibits remarkable photocatalytic activity, high stability and easy recovery for oxidative hydroxylation reaction of arylboronic acid substrates. The catalyst recovery and surface area were well balanced through improved light harvesting, contributed by concurrently enhancing the reflection on the outer porous shell and the diffraction in the inside double-shelled hollow structure, and increased separation rate of photogenerated carriers. Photocatalytic mechanism was investigated to identify the main reactive species in the catalytic reactions. The electron separation and transfer pathway via N,S-codoped graphite/In2O3 interface was revealed by theoretical calculations.