自旋电子学-光催化产氢交叉学科研究中的测试表征技术进展

清洁能源的研究和开发为解决化石燃料的日益枯竭问题带来了希望.氢能燃烧热值高,产物零污染,是理想的清洁能源.利用太阳能,通过光催化反应从水中制取氢气,是一条极有发展前景的制氢途径.然而,太阳能光催化制氢的发展受到许多因素的限制,特别是光电子传输过程中的电子-空穴复合及能量损失导致的电子输运效率低以及高的产氢产氧过电位导致水分解过程的势垒增大.自旋电子学的发展,为太阳能光催化制氢中的这些问题提供了解决之道.通过将自旋电子学的思路及原理应用于太阳能光催化制氢,借助自旋输运及电子隧穿可有效提高电子的输运效率,光电子的自旋极化还可降低产氢产氧过电位并抑制副产物的生成.测试表征技术的发展为揭示自旋电子学-太阳能光催化制氢交叉科学的内秉机理做出了重要贡献.然而,目前尚无相关文籍对此类测试表征技术的发展进行总结和评述.考虑到这些测试表征技术在自旋电子学-太阳能光催化制氢交叉科学研究中的重要作用,对它们进行归纳和总结,评述其发展面临的问题与挑战,探索并合理预测其未来的发展方向.

Progress in Characterization Techniques in Spintronic Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

In recent years, the fossil fuel crisis has triggered the worldwide demand for new clean energy. Hydrogen is a desirable candidate due to its high combustive enthalpy and zero-pollution characteristics. A promising approach for the hydrogen production is splitting H₂ from water by solar driven photo-catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. The development of photo-catalytic HER is inhibited by many factors:especiallythe the large energy loss and the electron-hole recombination during electron transportation, and high over-potential of proton reduction and water oxidation.Spintronic science sheds new lights on solving these obstacles by triggering the high efficient spin transfer and electron tunneling, as well aselectrons spin filtering to decrease the over-potential of the reaction and suppress the yield of by-products.The progresses in characterization techniques have contributed greatly to the unveiling of the scientific "secrets" in spintronic enhanced HER research. Yet,few work hasbeen carried out to sum up the setechniques and to analyze the potential challenges that inhibit their future development. Given that, this review focuses on these topics and provides an expectation for its development trends.