Designed Construction of SrTiO<sub>3</sub>/SrSO<sub>4</sub>/Pt Heterojunctions with Boosted Photocatalytic H<sub>2</sub> Evolution Activity
Jingyi Cai, Haoshan Wei, Yong Zhang, Rui Cai, Xueru Zhang, Yan Wang, Jiaqin Liu, Hark Hoe Tan, Ting Xie, Yucheng Wu
Abstract
Abstract Efficient separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs is a crucial factor for high‐performance photocatalysts. Effective electron–hole separation and migration could be achieved by heterojunctions with suitable band structures. Herein, a porous SrTiO 3 /SrSO 4 heterojunction is prepared by a sol‐gel method at room temperature followed by an annealing process. XRD characterization suggests high crystallinity of the heterostructure. A well‐defined interface between the two phases is confirmed by high‐resolution (HR)TEM. The photocatalytic H 2 evolution productivity of the SrTiO 3 /SrSO 4 heterojunction with Pt as co‐catalyst reaches 396.82 μmol g −1 h −1 , which is 16 times higher than that of SrTiO 3 /Pt. The boosted photocatalytic activity of SrTiO 3 /SrSO 4 /Pt can be ascribed to the presence of SrSO 4 , which promotes the transfer and migration of photogenerated carriers by forming the heterojunction and porous structure, which provides a large amount of active sites. This novel porous heterostructure brings new ideas for the development of high‐efficiency photocatalysts for H 2 release.