Visible-light driven nitrogen-doped petal-morphological ceria nanosheets for water splitting

Abstract Water splitting is a promising sustainable technology for solar-to-chemical energy conversion. Herein, we successfully fabricated nitrogen-doped ultrathin CeO 2 nanosheets by using field poppy petals as templates, which exhibit an efficiently catalytic activity for water splitting. Abundant oxygen vacancies and substitutional N atoms were experimentally observed in the film due to its unique biomorphic texture. In view of high efficiency and long durability of the as-prepared photocatalyst, this biotemplate method may provide an alternative technique for using biomolecules to assemble 2D nanomaterials.