Improved Photolysis of Water from Ti Incorporated Double Perovskite

The Ti incorporation at Fe-site in the double perovskite lattice of Sr2FeNbO6 (SFNO) system is studied. The Ti concentration optimization yielded an efficient photocatalyst. At an optimum composition of Ti as x = 0.07 in Sr2Fe1-xTixNbO6, the photocatalyst exhibited 2 times the quantum yield for photolysis of H2O in presence of CH3OH, than its undoped counterpart under visible light ( λ≥ 420 nm). Heavily Ti-doped Sr2Fe1-xTixNbO6 lattice exhibited poor photochemical properties due to the existence of constituent impurity phases as observed in the structural characterization, as well as deteriorated optical absorption. The higher electron-density acquired by n-type doping seem to be responsible for the more efficient charge separation in Sr2Fe1-xTixNbO6 (0.05 < x < 0.4) and thus consequently displays higher photocatalytic activity. The Ti incorporated structure also found to yield stable photocatalyst.