Facet Control of Photocatalysts for Water Splitting

Abstract Tailored photocatalysts with well-defined facets have been achieved in recent years, from the synthetic study of faceted crystals to the intrinsic property investigation of exposed surface, and to the overall performance in different applications. So far, the faceted crystals have shown encouraging improvement in the field of environment and energy applications. Among them, photocatalytic water splitting is a significant process to convert solar energy into chemical energy by dissociating water into hydrogen and oxygen. In this chapter, we mainly focus on the facet controlling of photocatalysts for water-splitting processes. For water reduction, the facet engineering of anatase, rutile, and brookite TiO2 is introduced, as well as some other faceted photocatalysts, Cu2O and CdS; For water oxidation, three most popular photocatalysts, Ag3PO4, BiVO4, and WO3, and their developments in facet control are reviewed, and for overall water splitting, perovskite-type oxides, NaTaO3, and SrTiO3 are briefly summarized.