Abstract
The physico-chemical property of any bulk material is mainly determined by its lattice structure. To improve the understanding of opto-electronic response of any photocatalyst system, it is thus necessary to investigate the underlying physics of these materials. The world is exploring various metal-oxides to identify an efficient energy material, specifically with the interest towards solar energy conversion. The work discusses typical important example of ferrite, stannate and niobate containing photocatalyst systems; and compares their photocatalytic aspects for solar hydrogen production. Though ferrites and stannate are expected to be abundant eco-friendly systems, in contrast the niobates are highly efficient photocatalytic systems. Experimental results validate niobates as efficient system as compared to the ferrites/stannates. Computation using density functional theory demonstrates that in Fe-based oxides, d-orbital play a vital role to render visible light character, which is not the case in niobate like PbBi2Nb2O9. The best suited band energetics w.r.t. redox levels of water splitting, yields high efficiency photocatalyst. The present work displays a direct correlation of experimental observations with computed results for the photocatalytic system those are used for solar energy conversion
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