Noble-metal-free Co P nanoparticles: modified perovskite oxide ultrathin nanosheet photocatalysts with significantly enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity.

The integration of semiconductor-based photocatalysts with noble-metal-free cocatalysts has great significance for practical applications. In this work, for the first time, novel Co P/KCaNbO nanostructures (abbreviated as Co P/KCNO) were synthesized by integrating noble-metal-free Co P nanoparticles onto the surface of KCaNbO ultrathin nanosheets (abbreviated as KCNO), and exhibited enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen generation. Under the irradiation of xenon light, the hydrogen generation rate of the resulting optimal Co P/KCNO reached up to 90.

Synthesis of cuprous oxide with morphological evolution from truncated octahedral to spherical structures and their size and shape-dependent photocatalytic activities.

In this study, a facile room-temperature solution-chemical route has been developed to synthesize Cu2O crystals with various sizes and morphologies. Adjustment of feeding speed of the aqueous mixture of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and ascorbic acid (AA) enables the Cu2O crystal morphology and size evolution. It is also interesting to find that, simple alteration of the feeding speed of AA aqueous solution enables the size of Cu2O crystals evolved, while the morphology of Cu2O crystals keep unchanged.