Enhanced light-driven water splitting by fast electron transfer in 2D/2D reduced graphene oxide/tungsten trioxide heterojunction with preferential facets.

In this work, 2D/2D tungsten trioxide (WO3) plates/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) heterojunction was prepared by combining the (0 0 2) faceted WO3 with RGO nanosheets. An enhanced photocatalytic efficiency of O2 evolution was achieved due to the uncovering electronegative oxygen atoms, which results in the enhancement of photo-induced charge carrier separation efficiency. The 3 wt% RGO/WO3 heterojunctions display significantly the increase of O2 production, which is 3.9 and 7.3 times higher than those of WO3 nanoplates with preferential (0 0 2) facets and commercial WO3. The strategy could provide an efficient approach for the fabrication of graphene-based metal oxide hybrids with exposed facets towards high photocatalytic performance.