TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution from Water Splitting on Ta2O5/SrZrO3 Heterostructures Decorated with CuxO/RuO2 Cocatalysts
AU - Huerta-Flores, Ali Margot
AU - Ruiz-Zepeda, Francisco
AU - Eyovge, Cavit
AU - Winczewski, Jedrzej P.
AU - Vandichel, Matthias
AU - Gaberšček, Miran
AU - Boscher, Nicolas D.
AU - Gardeniers, Han J.G.E.
AU - Torres-Martínez, Leticia M.
AU - Susarrey-Arce, Arturo
N1 - Funding Information:
L.M. Torres-Martínez acknowledges CONACYT for financial support for this research through the CONACYT–FC–1725 project. M.V. wishes to acknowledge the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) for providing computational facilities and support. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant agreement no. 742004) and from the Slovenian Research Agency (programs P2-0393 and P2-0132).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/7/20
Y1 - 2022/7/20
N2 - Photocatalytic H2 generation by water splitting is a promising alternative for producing renewable fuels. This work synthesized a new type of Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructure with Ru and Cu (RuO2/CuxO/Ta2O5/SrZrO3) using solid-state chemistry methods to achieve a high H2 production of 5164 μmol g-1 h-1 under simulated solar light, 39 times higher than that produced using SrZrO3. The heterostructure performance is compared with other Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructure compositions loaded with RuO2, CuxO, or Pt. CuxO is used to showcase the usage of less costly cocatalysts to produce H2. The photocatalytic activity toward H2 by the RuO2/CuxO/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructure remains the highest, followed by RuO2/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > CuxO/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > Pt/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > SrZrO3. Band gap tunability and high optical absorbance in the visible region are more prominent for the heterostructures containing cocatalysts (RuO2 or CuxO) and are even higher for the binary catalyst (RuO2/CuxO). The presence of the binary catalyst is observed to impact the charge carrier transport in Ta2O5/SrZrO3, improving the solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency. The results represent a valuable contribution to the design of SrZrO3-based heterostructures for photocatalytic H2 production by solar water splitting.
AB - Photocatalytic H2 generation by water splitting is a promising alternative for producing renewable fuels. This work synthesized a new type of Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructure with Ru and Cu (RuO2/CuxO/Ta2O5/SrZrO3) using solid-state chemistry methods to achieve a high H2 production of 5164 μmol g-1 h-1 under simulated solar light, 39 times higher than that produced using SrZrO3. The heterostructure performance is compared with other Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructure compositions loaded with RuO2, CuxO, or Pt. CuxO is used to showcase the usage of less costly cocatalysts to produce H2. The photocatalytic activity toward H2 by the RuO2/CuxO/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructure remains the highest, followed by RuO2/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > CuxO/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > Pt/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > SrZrO3. Band gap tunability and high optical absorbance in the visible region are more prominent for the heterostructures containing cocatalysts (RuO2 or CuxO) and are even higher for the binary catalyst (RuO2/CuxO). The presence of the binary catalyst is observed to impact the charge carrier transport in Ta2O5/SrZrO3, improving the solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency. The results represent a valuable contribution to the design of SrZrO3-based heterostructures for photocatalytic H2 production by solar water splitting.
KW - band alignment
KW - CuxO
KW - hydrogen evolution
KW - oxide heterostructure
KW - photocatalyst
KW - RuO2
KW - SrZrO3
KW - Ta2O5
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134854542&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsami.2c02520
DO - 10.1021/acsami.2c02520
M3 - Article
C2 - 35786845
AN - SCOPUS:85134854542
SN - 1944-8244
VL - 14
SP - 31767
EP - 31781
JO - ACS applied materials & interfaces
JF - ACS applied materials & interfaces
IS - 28
ER -
