Interfacial charge transfer of heterojunction photocatalysts: Characterization and calculation

Photocatalysis emerges as a promising technique for dealing with the growing energy crisis and environmental issues. However, the pristine photocatalysts usually suffer from the poor light absorption, the fast charge recombination, and the lack of active sites, which seriously thwarts the practical application of photocatalysis. Therefore, many strategies have been developed to solve these problems so far and the most popular one is the construction of heterojunction photocatalysts. Understanding the interfacial charge transfer of heterojunction photocatalysts is crucial for the design and development of high-performance photocatalysts. In this review, we focus on the typical characterization techniques including time-resolved spectroscopy and space-resolved microscopy for investigating the interfacial charge transfer of heterojunction photocatalysts. In parallel, we highlight recent progress in the density functional theory calculations for clarifying the mechanism of the interfacial charge transfer. At last, we also provide some stimulating perspectives on the future developments in this field.