Highly active pt nanoparticles supported on SrTiO₃ for photocatalytic hydrogen production

Loading of cocatalysts, and especially noble metal nanoparticles, on the surface of photocatalysts has been proven to be an effective strategy to enhance H₂ production, by facilitating charge separation and migration and acting as catalytically active sites. In this work, highly active Pt nanoparticles were loaded with an easy and quick photochemical way on SrTiO₃ (STO) and the photocatalytic H₂ production was tested under solar and visible irradiation. Characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to determine the physical properties of the samples. Additionally, a combination of UV-vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used to gain insights into the photocatalytic mechanism and the variation in photocatalytic activity among the samples. Notably, the photocatalyst with the optimum Pt loading (i.e., sample STO-0.4Pt with 0.4 wt% Pt) reached a hydrogen evolution rate of 15,805 µmol g^− 1 h^− 1, which was found to be ~ 8 times higher than the pristine STO sample under solar irradiation.