Constructing SrTiO₃–TiO₂ Heterogeneous Hollow Multi‐shelled Structures for Enhanced Solar Water Splitting

Abstract

Constructing hollow multi‐shelled structures (HoMSs) has a significant effect on promoting light absorption property of catalysts and enhancing their performance in solar energy conversion applications. A facile hydrothermal method is used to design the SrTiO3−TiO2 heterogeneous HoMSs by hydrothermal crystallization of SrTiO3 on the surface of the TiO2 HoMSs, which will realize a full coverage of SrTiO3 on the TiO2 surface and construct the SrTiO3/TiO2 junctions. The broccoli‐like SrTiO3−TiO2 heterogeneous HoMSs exhibited a fourfold higher overall water splitting performance of 10.6 μmol h−1 for H2 production and 5.1 μmol h−1 for O2 evolution than that of SrTiO3 nanoparticles and the apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) of 8.6 % at 365 nm, which can be mainly attributed to 1) HoMS increased the light absorption ability of the constructed photocatalysts and 2) the SrTiO3−TiO2 junctions boosted the separation efficiency of the photogenerated charge carriers.

Doping‐Induced Amorphization, Vacancy, and Gradient Energy Band in SnS2Nanosheet Arrays for Improved Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

“…[1] Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting that can convert solar energy into clean hydrogen fuel is considered as one of the most effective approaches. [2] Since the first demonstration of PEC water splitting based on TiO 2 by Fujishima and Honda, [3] various semiconductors,including metal oxides, [4] nitrides,and sulfides, [5] have been explored as photoanodes for PEC cells.However,the poor light harvesting, inefficient bulk-separation ability,a nd sluggish surface oxygen evolution reaction (OER) dynamics of photoanodes seriously impede the PEC performance. [6] Tw o-dimensional (2D) graphene-like layered materials have recently emerged as attractive PEC electrodes due to their unique electronic and optical properties.…”

Gold Plasmon‐Enhanced Solar Hydrogen Production over SrTiO3/TiO2 Heterostructures

“…Alternatively, constructing nanoheterostructure over SrTiO 3 material is another promising approach to improve the solar energy conversion because internal electric field (IEF) between the interfaces of semiconductor/SrTiO 3 can provide a huge driving force to efficiently reduce the binding energy of excitons and separate photogenerated electrons and holes . Among, crystal lattice match have been considered for rational design of nanoheterostructures for solar hydrogen production because crystal lattice mismatch will severely result in recombination of electrons and holes . Another, the band alignment fundamental is determining factor for building an efficient IEF, which appropriate conduction and valence band positions between semiconductor and SrTiO 3 benefit the separation and transport of charge carrier.…”

Robust Synthesis of Gold‐Based Multishell Structures as Plasmonic Catalysts for Selective Hydrogenation of 4‐Nitrostyrene

“…Accompanied by the increasing shell number, increased lightharvesting is observed, which may be caused by the presence of additional incident light reflections in the structures with more shells. [10,11] Moreover,c onverting 254 nm and 130 nm colloidal spheres can obtain 160 nm and 90 nm (Supporting Information, Figure S8) Au spheres,r espectively.B ecause of the robust conversion process,t hese multishell Au spheres Figure S9). More importantly,such asimple strategy is also suitable for generally fabricating Aubased bimetallic multishell structures.F or example,t he Au-Ag, Au-Cu, and Au-Pt multishell structures were synthesized by soaking the templates in corresponding salt solution and further reducing the obtained templates (Supporting Information, Figure S10).…”

“…[8,9] Constructing multishell structures of Au may further increase their plasmonic catalytic activity,s ince the porous multiple shells can provide larger specific surface area, enable molecules to access to the interior of structures,and increase light-harvesting. [10,11] Forthe synthesis of multishell noble metals,methods have mainly focused on the use of galvanic replacement reactions, involving multiple growing and etching of sacrificial shells. [12,13] These preparation procedures are tedious,e specially for ashell number above two,and the obtained products show low reproducibility,w hich hinders their further applications.I nterestingly,m ultishell structure of metal oxide can be facile formation by controlling decomposition of metalorganic template.…”