Volume 133, Issue 12 pp. 6765-6772
Forschungsartikel

Unveiling the Hydration Structure of Ferrihydrite for Hole Storage in Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation

Pengpeng Wang

Pengpeng Wang

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023 China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Deng Li

Deng Li

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023 China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Haibo Chi

Haibo Chi

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023 China

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Yongle Zhao

Yongle Zhao

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023 China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Prof. Junhu Wang

Prof. Junhu Wang

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023 China

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Dongfeng Li

Dongfeng Li

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023 China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Shan Pang

Shan Pang

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023 China

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Ping Fu

Ping Fu

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023 China

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Prof. Jingying Shi

Corresponding Author

Prof. Jingying Shi

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023 China

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Prof. Can Li

Corresponding Author

Prof. Can Li

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023 China

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First published: 19 December 2020
Citations: 9

Abstract

Ferrihydrite (Fh) has been demonstrated acting as a hole-storage layer (HSL) in photoelectrocatalysis system. However, the intrinsic structure responsible for the hole storage function for Fh remains unclear. Herein, by dehydrating the Fh via a careful calcination, the essential relation between the HSL function and the structure evolution of Fh material is unraveled. The irreversible and gradual loss of crystal water molecules in Fh leads to the weakening of the HSL function, accompanied with the arrangement of inner structure units. A structure evolution of the dehydration process is proposed and the primary active structure of Fh for HSL is identified as the [FeO6] polyhedral units bonding with two or three molecules of crystal water. With the successive loss of chemical crystal water, the coordination symmetry of [FeO6] hydration units undergoes mutation and a more ordered structure is formed, causing the difficulty for accepting photogenerated holes as a consequence.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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