Spatiotemporal imaging of charge transfer in photocatalyst particles

The water-splitting reaction using photocatalyst particles is a promising route for solar fuel production1–4. Photo-induced charge transfer from a photocatalyst to catalytic surface sites is key in ensuring photocatalytic efficiency5; however, it is challenging to understand this process, which spans a wide spatiotemporal range from nanometres to micrometres and from femtoseconds to seconds6–8. Although the steady-state charge distribution on single photocatalyst particles has been mapped by microscopic techniques9–11, and the charge transfer dynamics in photocatalyst aggregations have been revealed by time-resolved spectroscopy12,13, spatiotemporally evolving charge transfer processes in single photocatalyst particles cannot be tracked, and their exact mechanism is unknown. Here we perform spatiotemporally resolved surface photovoltage measurements on cuprous oxide photocatalyst particles to map holistic charge transfer processes on the femtosecond to second timescale at the single-particle level. We find that photogenerated electrons are transferred to the catalytic surface quasi-ballistically through inter-facet hot electron transfer on a subpicosecond timescale, whereas photogenerated holes are transferred to a spatially separated surface and stabilized through selective trapping on a microsecond timescale. We demonstrate that these ultrafast-hot-electron-transfer and anisotropic-trapping regimes, which challenge the classical perception of a drift–diffusion model, contribute to the efficient charge separation in photocatalysis and improve photocatalytic performance. We anticipate that our findings will be used to illustrate the universality of other photoelectronic devices and facilitate the rational design of photocatalysts.