Innovative Construction of SrTiO3 Nanoparticle/ZnO Nanorod Heterojunction Photocatalyst for Hydrogen Production Under Simulated Sunlight Radiation

In the current study, an innovative hydrothermal method was proposed for synthesis of the 0D/1D heterojunction nanocomposite of SrTiO3/ZnO from the combination of ZnO nanorod, SrTiO3 nanoparticle, for the first time. The prepared nanocomposite was fully characterized by XRD, FESEM, DRS, PL, and Mott-Schottky analysis and was applied for the first time for photocatalytic Hydrogen production under simulated sunlight irradiation. The results revealed that, the heterojunction sample had better photocatalytic performance than pure SrTiO3 and ZnO samples, and 25 mmol hydrogen molecule can be produced per gram of this heterojunction nanocomposite during 3 hours irradiation time. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of this heterojunction is attributed to the decreasing of the charge carrier’s recombination rate, and enhanced visible light harvesting. Moreover, based on the results from experiments and Mott-Schottky calculations a type II charge transfer mechanism revealed to be responsible for the enhanced photocatalytic performance. In this mechanism, the photoinduced electrons on conduction band of SrTiO3 nanoparticle migrate to the conduction band of ZnO nanorod, and the photoinduced holes on the valence band of ZnO nanorod migrate to the valence band SrTiO3 nanoparticle, which results in the decreasing of the charge carrier’s recombination rate.