Preparation and photocatalytic activities of two new Zn-doped SrTiO3 and BaTiO3 photocatalysts for hydrogen production from water without cocatalysts loading

Sr2/3Zn1/3TiO3 (1) and Ba5/6Zn1/6TiO3 (2) with perovskite structure have been prepared by a facile sol–gel method, among which the A sites (Sr and Ba for 1 and 2, respectively) were partially replaced by zinc ions. The photocatalysts were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The results of photocatalysis experiment showed that both 1 and 2 exhibited good activity for water reduction to form H2 without cocatalysts loading under ultraviolet light irradiation. Compared with pure SrTiO3 and BaTiO3, 1 and 2 showed remarkable improvement in H2 production efficiency, respectively. And the photocatalytic mechanisms of them were investigated by the theoretical method. This study demonstrated that the substitutional doping of appropriate ions could change the crystal and band structures and significantly promote electron transport in catalysts, which result in their good photocatalytic activities.

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► It demonstrates that the ion doping at A-site of titanate improve the photocatalytic activities.
► New catalyst: compound 1 is the first case of the ion doping at the A-site of titanate.
► Compound 2 is the first case of the ion doping at the A-site of BaTiO3.
► 1 and 2 loaded without cocatalyst show good production activities of H2 from pure water.
► The production efficiency of H2 over 1 is better than pure SrTiO3 loaded with cocatalysts.