Enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water splitting on Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructures decorated with CuxO/RuO2 cocatalysts

Huerta-Flores, Ali Margot; Zepeda, Francisco Ruiz-; Eyovge, Cavit; Winczewski, Jedrzej P.; Vandichel, Matthias; Gabersček, Miran; Boscher, Nicolas D.; Gardeniers, Han J.G.E.; Torres-Martínez, Leticia; Arce, Arturo Susarrey

doi:10.34961/researchrepository-ul.22134221.v1

Enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water splitting on Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructures decorated with CuxO/RuO2 cocatalysts

journal contribution

posted on 2023-02-21, 16:30 authored by Ali Margot Huerta-Flores, Francisco Ruiz- Zepeda, Cavit Eyovge, Jedrzej P. Winczewski, Matthias VandichelMatthias Vandichel, Miran Gabersček, Nicolas D. Boscher, Han J.G.E. Gardeniers, Leticia Torres-Martínez, Arturo Susarrey Arce

Photocatalytic H2 generation by water splitting is a promising alternative for producing renewable fuels. This work synthesized a new type of Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructure with Ru and Cu (RuO2/CuxO/Ta2O5/SrZrO3) using solid-state chemistry methods to achieve a high H2 production of 5164 μmol g−1 h−1 under simulated solar light, 39 times higher than that produced using SrZrO3. The heterostructure performance is compared with other Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructure compositions loaded with RuO2, CuxO, or Pt. CuxO is used to showcase the usage of less costly cocatalysts to produce H2. The photocatalytic activity toward H2 by the RuO2/CuxO/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 heterostructure remains the highest, followed by RuO2/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > CuxO/ Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > Pt/Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > Ta2O5/SrZrO3 > SrZrO3. Band gap tunability and high optical absorbance in the visible region are more prominent for the heterostructures containing cocatalysts (RuO2 or CuxO) and are even higher for the binary catalyst (RuO2/CuxO). The presence of the binary catalyst is observed to impact the charge carrier transport in Ta2O5/SrZrO3, improving the solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency.The results represent a valuable contribution to the design of SrZrO3-based heterostructures for photocatalytic H2 production by solar water splitting.

History

Publication

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 14 (28), pp.31767-31781

Other Funding information

M. Torres-Martínez acknowledges CONACYT for financial support for this research through the CONACYT−FC−1725 project. M.V. wishes to acknowledge the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) for providing computational facilities and support. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant agreement no. 742004) and from the Slovenian Research Agency (programs P2-0393 and P2-0132).