Author(s)

Masaharu Yoshimizu¹, Yuki Hotori², Hiroshi Irie^1,2,3

¹Special Doctoral Program for Green Energy Conversion Science and Technology, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.
²Special Doctoral Program on Clean Energy, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.
³Clean Energy Research Center, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.

Visible light-sensitive photocatalyst was developed by combining n-type silicon (n-Si) and tungsten trioxide (WO₃, n-Si/WO₃), yielding an ohmic contact in between. In this system, the ohmic contact acted as an electron-and-hole mediator for the transfer of electrons and holes in the conduction band (CB) of WO₃ and in the valence band (VB) of n-Si, respectively. Utilizing thus- constructed n-Si/WO₃, the decomposition of 2-propanolto CO₂ via acetone was achieved under visible light irradiation, by the contribution of holes in the VB of WO₃ to decompose 2-propanol and the consumption of electrons in the CB of n-Si to reduce O₂. The combination of p-type Si (p-Si) and WO₃ (p-Si/ WO₃), not the ohmic contact but the rectifying contact, was much less effective, compared to n-Si/WO₃.

Ohmic Contact, Silicon, Tungsten Trioxide, Visible Light, Oxidative Decomposition, Two-Step Excitation

Yoshimizu, M. , Hotori, Y. and Irie, H. (2017) Ohmic Hetero-Junction of n-Type Silicon and Tungsten Trioxide for Visible-Light Sensitive Photocatalyst. Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, 5, 33-43. doi: 10.4236/msce.2017.58004.