Yijun Liu[a], Baoxin Ge[b], Hongqing Su[a], Caijin Huang*[b] and Jing Tang*[a]
[a] Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, P. R. China
[b] State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, P. R. China
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science Volume 706, 15 March 2026, 139600
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2025.139600
Abstract The development of more efficient strategies for spatial charge separation and transfer represents a promising avenue to enhance photoelectrochemical performance. A vacancy engineering and electron donor-assisted strategy, which entails introducing electron-donor Au nanoclusters (NCs) onto the photoelectrode based on oxygen vacancy (OV)-rich metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), is proposed. The Au NCs@NiCo-MOF/BiVO4 heterostructure exhibited a photocurrent density of 4.86 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in 0.5 M Na2SO4 solution, which is 4.9 times higher than that of pristine BiVO4. Experimental characterizations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that OV with a high concentration in NiCo-MOF function as electron trapping sites, which effectively facilitates spatial charge separation and suppresses electron-hole recombination. Meanwhile, the introduced Au NCs serve as electron donors to increase the charge density of active sites, reduce the adsorption energy barrier of reaction intermediate and provide fast electron transport nanochannels to enhance the charge transfer. This work presents an approach for significantly enhancing charge carrier separation and transport.
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