Water Splitting Reaction under Visible Light Using Artificial Photosynthesis-photocatalyst System.

Abstract

Research on the water splitting into H2 and O2 using two different semiconductor photocatalysts and a redox mediator, mimicking the Z-scheme mechanism of the photosynthesis, is introduced. It was found that the H2 evolution took place on a Pt-SrTiO3(Cr-Ta-doped) photocatalyst using an I− electron donor under the visible light irradiation. And the Pt-WO3 photocatalyst showed an excellent activity of the O2 evolution using an IO3− electron acceptor under visible light. Both H2 and O2 evolution was observed with a stoichiometric ratio (H2/O2 = 2) for more than 250 h under visible light using a mixture of the Pt-WO3 and the Pt-SrTiO3(Cr-Ta-doped) powders suspended in NaI aqueous solution. It is the first finding that the stoichiometric water splitting occurred over oxide semiconductor photocatalysts under the visible light irradiation. We proposed a two-step photo-excitation mechanism using a pair of I−/IO3− redox mediator. The quantum efficiency of the stoichiometric water splitting was ca. 0.1% at 420.7 nm.