A new strategy to realize efficient spacial charge separation on carbonaceous photocatalyst

Dumbbell-like carbonaceous sodium hexagonal tungsten bronze (Na-HTB) materials are constructed as model photocatalysts to show the importance of carbon distribution for the photocatalysis of hybrid nanostructures. It is demonstrated that partially carbon coated on the ends of Na-HTB nanowire bundles shows better photoactivity than bare Na-HTB and overall carbon coated Na-HTB. Photoelectrochemistry measurements such as photocurrent measurement, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Voltage of open-circuit (Voc) decay experiments are carried out to clarify the influence of carbon distribution on the photoactivity of carbonaceous Na-HTB materials, and the results show that the enhancement of photoactivity is attributed to the efficient spacial charge separation.