Sunlight-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production from water using metal-doped strontium titanate perovskite

The effects of various metal dopants on the photocatalytic water splitting activity of SrTiO₃ -based photocatalysts were investigated using experimental studies. The SrTiO₃:Rh (1%) has been found to give the best efficiency in water splitting out of the various metal-doped samples studied. However, the same host doped with other metal dopants such as Fe, V, Ga, and Sb leads to negligible hydrogen evolution even when at least Fe has a better visible light response. Our results accompanied by previously conducted theoretical studies by our group explain the high photocatalytic water splitting activity of Rh doped SrTiO₃ . Furthermore, the effects of the amount of catalyst, the proportion of sacrificial agent and pH were studied for the SrTiO₃:Rh (1 mol%) along with studying its activity with seawater.