The suitability of silicon carbide for photocatalytic water oxidation

Silicon carbide (SiC), owing to its extraordinary chemical stability and refractory properties, is widely used in the manufacturing industry. Despite the semiconducting nature and morphology-tuned band gap, its efficacy as photocatalysts has not been thoroughly investigated. The current study reports the synthesis, characterization and the evaluation of the capability of silicon carbide for hydrogen generation from water splitting. The optical characterization of the as-synthesized powder exposed the formation of multi-wavelength absorbing entities in synthetic process. The structural analysis by XRD and the fine microstructure analysis by HRTEM revealed the cubic 3C-SiC (β-SiC) and hexagonal α-polymorphs (2H-SiC and 6H-SiC) as major and minor phases, respectively. The Mott–Schottky analysis verified the n-type nature of the material with the flat band potential of − 0.7 V. In the electrochemical evaluation, the sharp increase in the peak currents in various potential ranges, under illumination, revealed the plausible potential of the material for the oxidation of water and generation of hydrogen. The generation of hydrogen and oxygen, as a consequence of water splitting in the actual photocatalytic experiments, was observed and measured. A significant increase in the yield of hydrogen was noticed in the presence of methanol as h⁺ scavenger, whereas a retarding effect was offered by the Fe³⁺ entities that served as e⁻ scavengers. The combined effect of both methanol and Fe³⁺ ions in the photocatalytic process was also investigated. Besides hydrogen gas, the other evolved gasses such as methane and carbon monoxide were also measured to estimate the mechanism of the process.