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Defects enhanced photocatalytic performances in SrTiO3 using laser-melting treatment

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Abstract

SrTiO3 is an important photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution under solar light, a promising way to solve energy shortage. However, a rapid and efficient method to synthesize high-performance SrTiO3 used for this purpose still remains a challenge. In this work, we successfully prepared SrTiO3 catalyst with narrowed band gap through a rapid laser-melting method of a limited reaction time to seconds. The prepared SrTiO3 catalyst, which has a band gap of 3.05 eV, presents enhanced photocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution under visible light. The evolution rate of laser-melted SrTiO3 is approximately 3.5 times higher than that of pristine SrTiO3. In addition, the magnetism in laser-melted SrTiO3 is also enhanced, which could not be observed in pristine SrTiO3, confirming the defective structure of the obtained laser-melted SrTiO3. The proposed laser-melting method will be a promising way to rapidly and efficiently synthesize homogeneous, solar-driven SrTiO3 photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution with rich defects and thus high-performance.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank the financial support for this work from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 61274015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Liu Gu & Zhijian Peng

  2. State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People’s Republic of China

    Liu Gu, Hehe Wei & Hui Wu

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  1. Liu Gu
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  2. Hehe Wei
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Correspondence to Zhijian Peng or Hui Wu.

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Gu, L., Wei, H., Peng, Z. et al. Defects enhanced photocatalytic performances in SrTiO3 using laser-melting treatment. Journal of Materials Research 32, 748–756 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.461

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