Designed construction of SrTiO3/SrSO4/Pt heterojunction with boosted photocatalytic H2 evolution activity

Efficient separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs is a crucial factor for high-performance photocatalysts. Effective electron-hole separation and immigration could be achieved by heterojunctions with suitable band structures. Herein, a porous SrTiO 3 /SrSO 4 heterojunction is prepared by a sol-gel method at room temperature followed by an annealing process. XRD characterization suggests high crystallinity of the heterostructure. A well-defined interface between the two phases is confirmed by HRTEM. The photocatalytic H 2 evolution productivity of SrTiO 3 /SrSO 4 heterojunction with Pt as co-catalyst reaches 396.82μmolg -1 h -1 , which is 16 times higher than that of SrTiO 3 /Pt. The boosted photocatalytic activity of SrTiO 3 /SrSO 4 /Pt can be ascribed to the presence of SrSO 4 , which promotes the transfer and immigration of photogenerated carriers by forming heterojunction and the porous structure, which provides a large amounts of active sites. This novel porous heterostructure brings new ideas for the development of high-efficiency photocatalysts for H 2 release.