In Situ Generation of Copper Species Nanocrystals
in TiO<sub>2</sub> Electrospun Nanofibers: A Multi-hetero-junction
Photocatalyst for Highly Efficient Water Reduction
Engineering the multi-hetero-junctions
in semiconductor photocatalysts
has been recognized as a promising way to achieve highly efficient
photocatalytic solar-fuel generation, because the photoinduced heterointerfacial
charge transfer can greatly hinder the recombination process of charge-carrier
in photocatalysts. In this work, we fabricated copper species nanocrystals/TiO<sub>2</sub> multi-hetero-junction photocatalysts through in situ reduction
of CuO nanocrystals in CuO/TiO<sub>2</sub> electrospun nanofibers
by a hydrothermal method assisted by glucose. By changing the concentration
of glucose, the composition ratio of copper species nanocrystals,
including CuO, Cu<sub>2</sub>O, and Cu, can be adjusted in multi-hetero-junction
nanofibers. Upon simulated sunlight irradiation, the optimal copper
species nanocrystals/TiO<sub>2</sub> multi-hetero-junction nanofibers
exhibited an H<sub>2</sub> evolution rate of ∼10.04 μmol
h<sup>–1</sup>, a 17.3 times increase over that of bare TiO<sub>2</sub> nanofibers (∼0.57 μmol h<sup>–1</sup>)
