SrTiO₃: La/Cr hollow cube decorated with plasmonic Co for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

Plasmonic-driven photocatalyst have outstanding solar driven surface plasmon resonance (SPR) characteristics, and it is a prospective approach to improve photocatalytic performance. Herein, plasmonic Co metal decorated SrTiO₃: La/Cr hollow cubes was developed and constructed by template-free hydrothermal method. The photocatalyst possesses the merits of the hollow structure with large specific surface area and strong light absorption. The intimate contact between Co and SrTiO₃: La/Cr promotes the interfacial charge transfer. Co-SrTiO₃: La/Cr manifests the superior photocatalytic performance toward water splitting for hydrogen evolution compared with that of other cocatalyst. And the H₂ evolution exceeds 210 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹ under the optimum of the amount of 1.25wt% Co NPs. The mechanism of the enhanced performance comes from the improvement of light absorption in the visible-light region induced by SPR, as well as the efficient interfacial separation and transport of charge carriers on the photocatalyst facilitated by the local electromagnetic fields of plasmonic Co metal.