Journal of Energy Chemistry ›› 2022, Vol. 66 ›› Issue (3): 314-338.DOI: 10.1016/j.jechem.2021.08.023

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Perovskite-type lanthanum ferrite based photocatalysts: Preparation, properties, and applications

Muhammad Humayuna, Habib Ullahb, Muhammad Usmanc, Aziz Habibi-Yangjehd, Asif Ali Tahirb, Chundong Wanga,*, Wei Luoa,*   

  1. aSchool of Optical and Electronic Information, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Engineering Research Center for Functional Ceramics of the Ministry of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China;
    bEnvironment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn TR10 9FE, Cornwall, United Kingdom;
    cCenter of Research Excellence in Nanotechnology, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia;
    dDepartment of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabili P.O. Box 179, Ardabil, Iran
  • Received:2021-06-13 Revised:2021-07-30 Accepted:2021-08-03 Published:2022-10-25
  • Contact: *E-mail addresses: apcdwang@hust.edu.cn (C. Wang), luowei@mail.hust.edu.cn (W. Luo).
  • About author:Muhammad Humayun was born in Charsadda, Pakistan. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry & Materials Science from Heilongjiang University China in 2017. From Aug 2017 to Dec 2020, he worked as a Postdoc in School of Optical and Electronics Information, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST) China. Currently, he is working as a Research Fellow in the same group. He is the author, co-author of more than 50 peer-reviewed publications with citations over 1900. His current research interests include the design of functional photocatalysts & electrocatalysts for energy and environmental applications.
    Habib Ullah got his M.S. in physical chemistry in 2014, from the University of Peshawar, Pakistan. He completed his Ph.D. in renewable energy from CEMPS, University of Exeter, United Kingdom, in 2018. Currently, he is working as a research fellow at the same University. He has published 40 peer-reviewed papers with citations more than 1400. He is also a guest editor of Energies-MDPI. His research involves DFT & experimental study of energy materials, i.e., conjugated polymers, metal oxides, perovskite, and phase change materials.
    Muhammad Usman received his Ph.D. from Chinese Academy of Sciences, China in 2014. After completing two postdoctoral fellowships from Tsinghua-University China and UC-Berkeley Global- Science Institute for four years, he joined Center of Excellence in Nanotechnology, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia as Research Scientist-III (assistant professor). His research activities aimed the utilization of Zeolites, Metal- Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) for CO2 capture, separation and conversion. Currently, Muhammad Usman holds seven US patents, published more than 40 peer-reviewed international journals in addition to several conference proceedings/presentations.
    Aziz Habibi-Yangjeh received Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry from Sharif University of Technology. Now, he is working as a full Professor of Physical Chemistry in University of Mohaghegh Ardabili Iran. His area of research interest mainly includes semiconductor photocatalysis for energy & environmental applications. He has published more than 220 peer-reviewed papers with citations over 10000. He was selected as top 1% scientists in the world by ISI-ESI Thomson Reuters since 2020.
    Asif Ali Tahir got his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan, in 2009. He worked as a research associate at Loughborough University for three years and then moved to the University of Liverpool before joining the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences (CEMPS) at the University of Exeter as a Senior Lecturer in Renewable Energy. He specializes in the fabrication of nanomaterials using state-of-the-art techniques for solar energy conversion and photocatalysis. His research focuses include the design, synthesis, and characterization of new materials using soft chemistry approaches and the optimization of nanomaterials for high performance.
    Chundong Wang received his Ph.D. degree from City University Hong Kong. Currently, he is working as an associate professor at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) Wuhan, China. His research interest includes the design of highly efficient electrocatalysts for energy applications. He is the author, co-author of more than 130 peerreviewed papers with citations over 4000.
    Wei Luo was born in Hubei, China. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2009 from Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST) China. From 2009 to 2012, he worked as a Postdoc in HUST. From 2014 to 2016, he worked as a Postdoc in the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). Since 2016, he has been working as an associate professor at School of Optical and Electronics Information, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (HUST). His current research interests include the design of SAW sensors, low-dimensional semiconductor sensing materials, and energy materials.

Abstract: Clean energy and a sustainable environment are grand challenges that the world is facing which can be addressed by converting solar energy into transportable and storable fuels (chemical fuel). The main scientific and technological challenges for efficient solar energy conversion, energy storage, and environmental applications are the stability, durability, and performance of low-cost functional materials. Among different nanomaterials, perovskite type LaFeO3 has been extensively investigated as a photocatalyst due to its abundance, high stability, compositional and structural flexibility, high electrocatalytic activity, efficient sunlight absorption, and tunable band gap and band edges. Hence, it is urgent to write a comprehensive review to highlight the trend, challenges, and prospects of LaFeO3 in the field of photocatalytic solar energy conversion and environment purification. This critical review summarizes the history and basic principles of photocatalysis. Further, it reviews in detail the LaFeO3, applications, shortcomings, and activity enhancement strategies including the design of nanostructures, elemental doping, and heterojunctions construction such as Type-I, Type-II, Z-Type, and uncommon heterojunctions. Besides, the optical and electronic properties, charge carriers separation, electron transport phenomenon and alignment of the band gaps in LaFeO3-based heterostructures are comprehensively discussed.

Key words: Perovskite-type LaFeO3, Solar fuel, Photocatalysis, Doping, Heterostructures