Solar light-driven water splitting provides a promising way to store and use abundant solar energy in the form of gaseous hydrogen which is the cleanest chemical fuel for mankind; therefore this field has been attracting increasing attention over the past decades. The fundamental steps for efficient photocatalyst for water splitting include uptake of photons of targeted energy range by appropriate electronic band structure, excited electrons and holes (excitons) migration, as well as recombination and selective conversion excited electrons for H⁺ reduction to H₂ and holes and OH⁻ to O₂ on catalyst surface. Each step if not efficiently taken place could hamper the overall photocatalytic activity. Numerous semiconductors with appropriate bandgaps have mainly been developed as candidates for effective solar energy capture, whereas at present, their low quantum efficiency still remains as the major obstacle in further applications. In this minireview, we will disentangle the progress to develop photocatalysts with good photon uptake from photocatalytic water splitting performance. In accordance with the thermodynamic and kinetic considerations of the photocatalytic water splitting reaction, different strategies for improving the fundamental processes have been briefly reviewed. Some recent advances in facilitating charge carriers separation have also been presented. Photocatalytic water splitting at elevated temperatures is emphasized as a novel approach to suppress photo-excitons recombination on catalyst surface owing to adsorption of enhanced concentration of ionic species including H⁺ and OH⁻ to create their local polarization to the excitons. Stronger polarization to hinder the excitons recombination can also be obtained by using polar-faceted support materials to the active phase of semiconductor. It is clearly demonstrated in this minireview that such high temperature–promoted photocatalytic water splitting systems could open up a new direction and provide a new innovation to this field.

太阳光驱动的水分解提供了一种以气态氢的形式存储和使用大量太阳能的有前途的方式，气态氢是人类最清洁的化学燃料；因此，在过去的几十年中，这个领域已引起越来越多的关注。有效的水分解光催化剂的基本步骤包括通过适当的电子能带结构吸收目标能量范围的光子，激发的电子和空穴（激子）迁移，以及将H ⁺还原为H ₂和空穴的重组和选择性转化激发电子和OH ^-与O ₂在催化剂表面上。如果没有有效地进行每个步骤，则可能会阻碍总体的光催化活性。具有合适的带隙的许多半导体已经主要被开发为有效捕获太阳能的候选物，但是目前，它们的低量子效率仍然是进一步应用的主要障碍。在本小型审查中，我们将从光催化水分解性能中解开开发具有良好光子吸收能力的光催化剂的进展。根据光催化水分解反应的热力学和动力学考虑，简要概述了改善基本过程的不同策略。还已经提出了促进电荷载流子分离的一些最新进展。⁺和OH ^-创建自己的本地极化激子。也可以通过使用极性面状的载体材料对半导体的活性相进行极化来阻止激子复合。在这份小型回顾中清楚地表明，这种高温促进的光催化水分解系统可以为该领域开辟新的方向并提供新的创新。