Surfactant-bridged forming of core-shell NaNbO3@g-C3N4 microcuboid: An approach to produce semiconductor heterojunction

The separation of photoexcited carriers affects critically the photoelectric properties of semiconductor materials. Heterostructure forming between suitable semiconductors can drive effectively the carriers towards different directions at the interface thus promote the separation. In this research, various surfactants, including anionic sodium dodecyl sulphate, cationic polyethylenediamine and hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), were applied to fabricate perovskite NaNbO3@graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) heterostructures and the resulting photoelectric performances were compared. In the presence of CTAB, a core-shell microstructure with uniform g-C3N4 coating on NaNbO3 microcuboid was obtained and exhibited the highest photocatalytic, which is 33 times higher than that of pure NaNbO3, as well as the highest photoresponse properties among all the synthesized structures. The formation mechanism of core-shell NaNbO3@g-C3N4 composite and reasons for the photoelectric property enhancement were discussed based on the heterostructure model. Our results propose that surfactant-assisted method can provide a feasible approach to fabricate the semiconductor heterojunction by bridging the constructing components. A general approach to fabricate core-shell perovskite/carbon nitride heterojunction was developed with the assistance of surfactant bridging. A suitable surfactant should consist of a short hydrophobic alkane tail for attracting hydrophobic carbon nitride and a cationic group attracting inorganic perovskite. Well-bonded NaNbO3/g-C3N4 interface improves the photocatalytic and photoelectric properties by more than an order of magnitude by enhancing the photocarriers separation efficiency. [Display omitted]