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Photocatalytic activity of MTiO3 (M = Ca, Ni, and Zn) nanocrystals for water decomposition to hydrogen

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Abstract

MTiO3 (M = Ca, Ni, and Zn) nanocrystals were prepared via a facile ethylene glycol-mediated synthesis route followed by calcination in air. The structures and morphologies of nanocrystals were characterized by x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The results indicated that CaTiO3 and NiTiO3 are orthorhombic phase, while the ZnTiO3 is orthorhombic phase. The activity of the CaTiO3 nanocrystals for water splitting into H2 was obviously higher than those of the NiTiO3 and ZnTiO3 nanocrystals, which could be attributed to the more negative conduction band position of CaTiO3 than NiTiO3 and ZnTiO3. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller system-based surface areas of samples are 19.03, 21.13, and 4.17 m2/g for CaTiO3, NiTiO3, and ZnTiO3 nanocrystals, respectively. In addition, the activity of the CaTiO3 nanocrystals increased with increase in the sintering temperature of samples.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21171052), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China (NCET-11-0959), the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (LBH-Q11009), Program for Innovative Research Team in University (IRT-1237), Innovation Team of Education Bureau of Heilongjiang Province (2013TD002), Heilongjiang Province Natural Science Foundation of Key Projects (ZD201301), and Harbin Technological Innovation Talent of Special Funds (RC2013QN017028).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, 150080, China

    Shuai Liu, Yang Qu, Rong Li, Guofeng Wang & Ying Li

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  1. Shuai Liu
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  2. Yang Qu
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  3. Rong Li
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  4. Guofeng Wang
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  5. Ying Li
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Correspondence to Guofeng Wang.

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Liu, S., Qu, Y., Li, R. et al. Photocatalytic activity of MTiO3 (M = Ca, Ni, and Zn) nanocrystals for water decomposition to hydrogen. Journal of Materials Research 29, 1295–1301 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.110

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