Enhancing photocatalytic activity of Sn doped TiO2 dominated with {1 0 5} facets

•Sn doped TiO2 particles exposed by {1 0 5} facets were successfully synthesized.•Sn doped TiO2 particles show enhanced photocatalytic performance.•The energetics and electronic structures of Sn doped catalyst were calculated.•The Sn atom at the edge site can exhibit higher promotion effect.

Electronic structures of semiconductor photocatalysts control the light absorbance, charge-carrier separation and mobility, activation energy and consequently, photocatalytic activity. Ion doping has been widely used to modify the electronic structure of a semiconductor photocatalyst. Here, we successfully synthesized Sn doped single crystalline anatase TiO2 particles dominated with {1 0 5} facets by a gas phase oxidation process, and their structure and composition were thoroughly analyzed by XRD/TEM/FESEM/XPS. The photoluminescence emission spectra measurements reveal that the small amount of doped Sn in TiO2 could suppress the recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. Thus, the Sn doped TiO2 shows a significantly enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance, with its hydrogen generation rate being 4.5 times higher than that of pure TiO2. First-principle simulation results suggest the doped Sn at the edge exhibit higher adsorption energy toward H, which could promote the H2 generation from the splitting of water.

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