Fig. 1: Interfacial interactions between substrates and photoanodes.

a Schematic of covalent bonding-dominant interface. Excessive covalent bonding of reactants on the catalyst surface facilitated the charge transfer, but this led to catalyst poisoning due to the tight bond connection. b Schematic of electrostatic repulsion interface. Long-range repulsion prevented reactant access, hindering the charge transfer process and reactant activation. c Schematic of non-covalent interface. Surface electric field-induced polarization of reactants via non-covalent interactions enabled efficient charge transfer while reversible adsorption mitigated surface poisoning.