Monodisperse silver nanocubes composite Ag@C/SrTiO3 photocatalytic decomposition of water for hydrogen reduction

Abstract

Metal-induced photocatalysis has been a relatively effective strategy for the efficient use of solar energy. In this paper, highly efficient and stable Ag@C/SrTiO3 photocatalysts were prepared by compounding silver nanocubes wrapped with few layers graphite with strontium titanate materials. We obtained silver nanocubes with a uniformly dispersed size of about 35 nm by varying the surface energy of silver and inducing the preferential binding of PVP on the (100) crystal plane with the help of selective adsorption of chloride ions on the different crystal planes of silver. As obtained under the characterisation of UV–visible absorption spectra, the material has a broad visible light absorption (450–900 nm). The Ag@C/SrTiO3 has a hydrogen reduction rate of up to 457.5 μmol g−1·h−1 under simulated sunlight, which is ∼200 % higher than the SrTiO3 and ∼900 % higher than the sliver. Moreover, the catalyst was stable, still producing 93.5 % hydrogen after three cycles of testing, and the photocatalyst structure did not change as known from the XRD data of the material before and after testing. The present work demonstrates the feasibility of rational design of efficient and stable silver-based photocatalysts.