Abstract
Black titania has attracted enormous attention due to its enhanced photocatalytic activity via increased solar absorption, but few studies extended the investigations to other wide band-gap titanates. Herein, strontium titanate (SrTiO3), a typical ternary titanate with more potential in photocatalysis, is selected as the target material. Black SrTiO3 nanocrystals were obtained by molten aluminum reduction of solution-processed pristine SrTiO3 in a two-zone furnace. Different from the black titania, black SrTiO3 nanocrystals are well-crystallized and have no core-shell structure. Substantial Ti3+ cations and oxygen vacancies are introduced into SrTiO3 after aluminum reduction, which results in enhanced absorption in both visible and near-infrared regions, and improved charge separation and transport. The photocatalytic hydrogen-generation and photoelectrochemical investigations demonstrate that black SrTiO3 exhibits an impressive improvement (2.5 times and 2.4 times at 1.23 VRHE, respectively) compared with white SrTiO3.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 7528-7534 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | CRYSTENGCOMM |
Volume | 17 |
Issue number | 39 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 21 2015 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemistry
- General Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics