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Liu et al. Microstructures 2023;3:2023001 Microstructures
DOI: 10.20517/microstructures.2022.23

Review Open Access

Modulation of photogenerated holes for enhanced

photoelectrocatalytic performance

Naiyun Liu, Yixian Liu, Yunliang Liu, Yaxi Li, Yuanyuan Cheng, Haitao Li
Institute for Energy Research, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, Jiangsu,
China.

Correspondence to: Prof. Haitao Li, Institute for Energy Research, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu
University, Zhenjiang 212013, Jiangsu, China. E-mail: liht@ujs.edu.cn

How to cite this article: Liu N, Liu Y, Liu Y, Li Y, Cheng Y, Li H. Modulation of photogenerated holes for enhanced
photoelectrocatalytic performance. Microstructures 2023;3:2023001. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/microstructures.2022.23

Received: 3 Sep 2022 First Decision: 21 Sep 2022 Revised: 5 Oct 2022 Accepted: 21 Oct 2022 Published: 1 Jan 2023

Academic Editors: Yunhau Ng, Shujun Zhang Copy Editor: Fangling Lan Production Editor: Fangling Lan

Abstract
Utilizing clean energy derived from photoelectrocatalytic reactions is expected to be an excellent choice to
fundamentally solve the problem of the human energy crisis. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell can effectively
promote charge separation and improve solar energy conversion efficiency since it combines the advantages of
photocatalysis and electrocatalysis. However, the hole transfer and subsequent oxidation reaction in the PEC
process are slow, resulting in the rapid recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and low PEC
performance. The half-oxidation reaction involving photogenerated holes is the bottleneck of PEC water splitting.
Therefore, hole modulation has been an important research area in the field of catalysis. However, compared with
electron modulation, research on hole modulation is limited and still faces great challenges. It is therefore of great
significance to develop effective modulation strategies for photogenerated holes. This review summarizes the hole
modulation strategies developed in the last five years, including hole sacrificial agents, nanostructural modification,
heterostructure construction and cocatalyst modification. Hole modulation dynamics studies, such as transient
absorption spectroscopy, time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy, transient photovoltage and scanning
electrochemical microscopy, are also summarized. Moreover, relevant conclusions and an outlook are proposed.

Keywords: Photoelectrocatalysis, hole modulation, charge separation, interfacial kinetics

© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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