Amorphous Fe(OH) 3 Passivating CeO 2 Nanorods: A Noble-Metal-Free Photocatalyst for Water Oxidation.

Noble-metal-free composites with good photocatalytic property are of great interest. Here, CeO ₂ nanorods composites loaded with amorphous Fe(OH) ₃ cocatalyst were designed and prepared via a secondary water bath at 100 °C. The as-synthesized CeO ₂ /amorphous Fe(OH) ₃ composites exhibited superior light photocatalytic activities compared to pure CeO ₂ , especially the sample with a loading time of 60 min. The photocatalytic oxygen generation rate could reach to 357.2 μmol h ^-1  g ^-1 , and the average apparent quantum yield (AQY) was 24.67 %, which was a 5.5-fold increase compared to the CeO ₂ sample. The improvement of photocatalytic performance could be ascribed to three main reasons: First, loading the amorphous Fe(OH) ₃ enlarged the specific surface area and passivated the surface of the pristine CeO ₂ . Second, the amorphous Fe(OH) ₃ ,which acted as a cocatalyst, provided many active sites, and reduced the reaction activation energy. Thirdly, the maximum interface with intimate contact between CeO ₂ and amorphous Fe(OH) ₃ cocatalyst accelerated the photogenerated charge separation efficiency and thus improved the photocatalytic performance of CeO ₂ in photocatalytic water oxidation.
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