Precious metal‐free photocatalytic water oxidation by a layered double hydroxide‐Prussian blue analogue hybrid assembly

Abstract

The development of earth‐abundant photocatalytic assemblies has been one of the bottlenecks for the advancement of scalable water splitting cells. In this study, a ZnCr layered double hydroxide and a CoFe Prussian blue analogue are combined to afford an earth‐abundant photocatalytic assembly involving a visible light‐absorbing semiconductor (SC) and a water oxidation catalyst (WOC). Compared to bare ZnCr‐LDH, the SC‐WOC hybrid assembly exhibits a threefold enhancement in photocatalytic activity, which is maintained for 6 h under photocatalytic conditions at pH 7. The band energy diagram was extracted from optical and electrochemical studies to elucidate the origin of the enhanced photocatalytic performance. This study marks a straightforward pathway to develop low‐cost and precious metal‐free assemblies for visible light‐driven water oxidation.