Abstract
The search of catalysts with high efficiency for photocatalytic oxygen evolution by water splitting has always attracted great attention of global scientists. In this study, Ag/Bi4Ti3O12 (Ag/BTO) nanocomposites with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect were synthesized by a solvothermal method. Compared with BTO, Ag/BTO narrowed the band gap, improved the absorption intensity in 400–700 nm region, increased the separation efficiency of photo-induced electron-hole pairs, reduced the energy barrier (from 2.18 to 1.39 eV) of the key step (O* → OOH*) from water splitting, and remarkably enhanced the photocatalytic water oxidation ability. The oxygen evolution rate of visible-light-driven 3-Ag/BTO with an appropriate silver content is 2623.51 μmol∙g−1∙h−1, which is 8.39 times higher than that of BTO without any sacrificial agent. Moreover, the excellent performance of 3-Ag/BTO is also obviously higher than that of most reported photocatalysts.
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