Enhancing charge separation by lattice coherency engineering in heterojunction photocatalysis

For heterojunction photocatalysts, incoherent interfaces induce large energy barriers for photoinduced charge separation, thereby leading to poor photocatalytic performances. In this issue of Chem Catalysis , Xue et al. present a convenient strategy to transform the incoherent interface in a ZnO-ZnS heterojunction to lattice-phase matched, semi-coherent interface by annealing-induced grain rotation. The enhancement in interfacial lattice coherency results in significant improvement in photocatalytic performances for water reduction, providing a practical paradigm for atomic engineering of heterojunction photocatalysts. For heterojunction photocatalysts, incoherent interfaces induce large energy barriers for photoinduced charge separation, thereby leading to poor photocatalytic performances. In this issue of Chem Catalysis , Xue et al. present a convenient strategy to transform the incoherent interface in a ZnO-ZnS heterojunction to lattice-phase matched, semi-coherent interface by annealing-induced grain rotation. The enhancement in interfacial lattice coherency results in a significant improvement in photocatalytic performances for water reduction, providing a practical paradigm for atomic engineering of heterojunction photocatalysts.