Morphology- and size-dependent FAPbBr3/WO3 Z-scheme photocatalysts for the controllable photo-oxidation of benzyl alcohol
Weizhe Wang, Haowei Huang, Xi Ke, Xiao Liu, Shuhui Yang, Kunqiang Wang, Le Huang, Chen Tu, Zhaoqiang Zheng, Dongxiang Luo, Menglong Zhang
Abstract
Photocatalytic benzyl alcohol (BA) oxidation to value-added chemicals by semiconductors has attracted massive attentions due to its industrial interest. In this work, Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts composed of FAPbBr3 nanocrystals (NCs) and WO3 with different morphologies are prepared. Benefiting from the strong redox potential and morphological engineering, the Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst exhibits an outstanding performance of BA oxidation to benzaldehyde (BD) with 99% selectively. Remarkably, after manipulating the size of FAPbBr3 NCs to quantum dots (QDs), benzoic acid (BZ) as the main product (90% selectivity) of BA oxidation can be generated on the Z-scheme photocatalyst. As revealed by in-situ electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR), a new radical will be generated over the FAPbBr3 QDs/WO3 which alters the product of benzyl alcohol oxidation form BD to BZ.