Preparation Of SrTiO₃/TiO₂ Composites And Study Of Photoelectrochemical Properties

Photoelectrochemical technique, as a key technology to make use of light energy, is developed to produce secondary energy such as hydrogen to ease the current problems of environmental pollution and energy shortage. Due to the advantages of low cost, high stability and photocatalytic activity, low toxicity, TiO₂ is considered as one of the most excellent semiconductor photocatalysts. In this work, SrTiO₃/TiO₂ composites base on TiO₂ nanorod arrays were treated with hydrogen to study the effect of hydrogen treatment on the photoelectrochemical properties.TiO₂ nanorod arrays materials were prepared by anodic oxidation process. The growth condition of the TiO₂ nanorod arrays were studied by analyzing the TiO₂ with different anodic oxidation time. The further photoelectrochemical properties study showed the TiO₂ anodic oxidized with 1 h possessed the best photoelectrochemical properties, the photogenerated current density of which can reach 0.170 mA·m-2 under white light.SrTiO₃/TiO₂ composites were prepared by electrochemical deposition process.Under different preparation conditions, flower-structured and tube-structured composite materials were prepared. And tube-structured Sr TiO3/TiO₂ composites showed better photoelectrochemical properties. Further analysis of the preparation condition showed that the tube-structured SrTiO₃/TiO₂ composites prepared under deposition voltage of 30 V, deposition time of 10 min and annealing temperature of 450 ?C possessed the bestphotocatalytic performance, the photogenerated current density of which was 2.03 times of that of pure TiO₂ nanorod arrays under white light.SrTiO₃/TiO₂ composites were also prepared by hydrothermal process. After hydrogen treatment, the surface become rough and the light absorption ability was enhanced. That is to say, more photoelectrons could be generated and the intrinsic resistance of the composites materials was decreased. Therefore the transfer of the photogenerated carriers was accelerated and the life was also enhanced. The Sr TiO3/TiO₂ composites treated with hydrogen under 350 ?C for 30 min possessed the best photoelectrochemical performance, the photogenerated current density of which was 3 times of that of pure TiO₂ nanorod arrays under white light.