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Structural, photocatalytic, and photophysical properties of perovskite MSnO3 (M = Ca, Sr, and Ba) photocatalysts

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Abstract

The photophysical properties of MSnO3 (M = Ca, Sr, and Ba) including optical absorption, photoluminescence, and energy band structure including band edge positions were investigated experimentally and theoretically in association with their photocatalytic properties. Photocatalytic reactions for H2 and O2 evolution in the case of sacrificial reagents were performed under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation. The order of the activities of H2 evolution was CaSnO3 > SrSnO3 > BaSnO3, agreeing not only with that of the conduction-band edges (or band gaps) but also with that of the transferred excitation energy, while that of O2 evolution was CaSnO3 < SrSnO3 < BaSnO3, consistent with that of the angle of the Sn–O–Sn bonds as well as the delocalization of excited energy. When loaded with RuO2 cocatalyst, both CaSnO3 and SrSnO3 can efficiently split pure water into hydrogen and oxygen in a stoichiometric ratio under UV light irradiation. In addition, RuO2-loaded SrSnO3 showed higher water splitting activity than RuO2-loaded CaSnO3 did. This is attributed to the suitable conduction and valence band edges and to high mobility of the photogenerated charge carriers caused by the proper distortion of SnO6 connection in SrSnO3. The RuO2-loaded BaSnO3 photocatalyst cannot split pure water, which might be because of a high concentration of defect centers such as Sn2+ ions and the probability of radiative recombination in BaSnO3.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are thankful to Dr. Jiang Yin, Dr. Dafa Wang, and Dr. Weifeng Yao for their helpful discussions. One of the authors (W. Zhang) thanks the financial support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). This work was partially supported by the Global Environment Research Fund and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (417) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of the Japanese Government.

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  1. National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Photocatalytic Materials Center, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0047, Japan

    Weifeng Zhang, Junwang Tang & Jinhua Ye

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  1. Weifeng Zhang
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  2. Junwang Tang
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Correspondence to Jinhua Ye.

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Zhang, W., Tang, J. & Ye, J. Structural, photocatalytic, and photophysical properties of perovskite MSnO3 (M = Ca, Sr, and Ba) photocatalysts. Journal of Materials Research 22, 1859–1871 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2007.0259

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2007.0259

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