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Function-reversible facets enabling SrTiO3 nanocrystals for improved photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

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  • Special Column: Toward Carbon Neutrality by Artificial Photosynthesis
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Abstract

It has been widely reported that, for faceted nanocrystals, the two adjacent facets with different band levels contribute to promoted charge separation, and provide active sites for photocatalytic reduction and oxidation reaction, respectively. In such cases, only one family of facets can be used for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Herein, by using SrTiO3 nanocrystals enclosed by {023} and {001} facets as a model photocatalyst, this paper proposed a strategy to achieve the full-facets-utilization of the nanocrystals for photocatalytic hydrogen via chemically depositing Pt nanoparticles on all facets. The photo-deposition experiment of CdS provided direct evidence to demonstrate that the {023} facets which were responsible for photooxidation reaction can be function-reversed for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution after depositing Pt nanoparticles, together with the {001} facets. Thus, the full-facets-utilization led to a much-improved activity for photocatalytic hydrogen, in contrast to those SrTiO3 nanocrystals with only {001} facets deposited by Pt nanoparticles via a photo-deposition method.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52225606 and 51888103), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China, and the Youth Innovation Team of Shaanxi Universities, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics, Key Laboratory for Non-equilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter (Ministry of Education), Key Laboratory of Shaanxi for Advanced Materials and Mesoscopic Physics, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Bin Wang, Bei An & Xiaoqian Li

  2. International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Bin Wang & Shaohua Shen

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  1. Bin Wang
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  2. Bei An
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  3. Xiaoqian Li
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Correspondence to Shaohua Shen.

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Wang, B., An, B., Li, X. et al. Function-reversible facets enabling SrTiO3 nanocrystals for improved photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Front. Energy 18, 101–109 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-023-0894-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-023-0894-4

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