Abstract:

In recent years, environmental remediation and clean energy production have attracted worldwide attention. Photocatalytic reaction under the irradiation of renewable solar energy is one of the effective ways to solve these problems. The photocatalytic system is relatively complicated, in which photocatalyst and co-catalyst are two key factors affecting the photocatalytic efficiency. Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) with unique electronic structures are cheap and abundant, and hence have become a new and hot class of photocatalytic materials. Herein, starting from the basic principles of improving photocatalytic efficiency, including the enhancement of light absorption and the improvements of photogenerated electrons and holes separation efficiency, and photogenerated carriers' utilization, we reviews the latest progress of TMPs as co-catalysts and photocatalysts in last decade. Then, the challenges and problems in the rapid development of TMPs, such as the difficulty in full water splitting and the unclear structure-photocatalytic activity relationship, are pointed out. Finally, new and efficient photocatalytic TMPs based on dual-function design and theoretical calculations will play an important role in improving the photocatalytic efficiency.

Key words: catalyst, transition metal phosphates, solar energy, catalytic mechanism, photochemistry, photocatalysis

摘要：

近年来，环境治理和清洁能源生产已被视为世界的当务之急。利用可再生太阳能进行光催化反应是解决上述问题的一种有效途径。光催化体系较为复杂，光催化剂和助催化剂是影响光催化效率的两个关键因素。具有独特电子结构的过渡金属磷化物（TMPs）价格低廉、储量丰富，已成为光催化材料研究领域的新热点。本文从光催化效率提高的基本原理（光吸收增强、光生电子和空穴分离效率以及载流子利用率提高等）出发，综述了近十年来TMPs作为助催化剂和光催化剂的最新研究进展。最后，总结了TMPs在快速发展过程中依然存在全解水困难以及结构与光催化活性对应关系不明确等挑战，通过双功能TMPs的设计和理论计算的配合，新型高效光催化材料TMPs会对光催化效率的提高发挥重要作用。

关键词: 催化剂, 过渡金属磷化物, 太阳能, 催化机理, 光化学, 光催化