Construction of Novel Heterojunction Photocatalytic Systems and Their Synergistic Enhancement Mechanism in Photocatalytic Water Splitting
A Special Issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344) belonging to the section "Photocatalysis".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2026 | Viewed by 296
Editors
Interests: catalysis; green chemistry; nanomaterials; surface science; biofuels; porous solids; synchrotron radiation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: solar-induced wastewater treatment; air pollution remediation; solar-induced energy production; upconversion; energy
2. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Interests: catalysts; nanomaterials design; photochemistry; photo(electro)catalysts; environmental and energy applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue will focus cutting-edge research on heterojunction photocatalysts to improve wider solar light absorption for hydrogen (H2) production via water splitting. Although significant progress has been made, photocatalytic water splitting still faces several challenges like rapid charge recombination, limited visible light absorption, sluggish surface reaction kinetics, and poor stability for long-term applications. Importantly, improper band alignment and weak interfacial contact also hinder charge transfer, reducing overall performance.
To address these, researchers are developing heterojunctions such as Type-II, Z-scheme, S-scheme, p-n junctions, and Schottky junctions. These systems enable effective charge separation, wider light harvesting, and improved surface redox reactions. Further advances are being explored through understanding their mechanism, defect engineering, cocatalyst loading, single-atom catalysts, and carbon-based materials etc.,
This Special Issue welcomes contributions that focus on new material design, mechanistic insights, operando/in-situ characterization, theoretical modeling to understand synergistic mechanisms, and practical applications in water splitting into H2 production. Studies addressing stability, scalability, solar-to-hydrogen efficiency, and practical device integration are particularly encouraged, but submissions are not limited to these topics.
Prof. Dr. Adam F. Lee
Dr. Hyoung-il Kim
Dr. Sekar Karthikeyan
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- heterojunction photocatalysts
- photocatalytic water splitting
- H2 production
- Z-scheme/S-scheme heterojunction
- interface engineering
- cocatalyst engineering
- photocatalyst stability
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