Accelerating the charge separation from the Schottky junction effect of Pd-loaded Al: SrTiO3 for highly efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

For the construction of metal-semiconductor heterojunctions, the rational regulation of Schottky barriers has an important impact on their photocatalytic activity. Here, we successfully constructed Pd-loaded Al: SrTiO3 3 (ASTO) photocatalysts by an in situ strategy, and the photocatalytic hydrogen production performance was conducted under simulated solar light irradiation. The results show that the optimal Pd-ASTO-1.5% photocatalyst exhibits a hydrogen production performance of 1.43 mmol g- 1 h- 1 , which is a 140-fold improvement compared to pure ASTO. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that Pd nanoparticles (NPs) could reduce the energy barrier for hydrogen adsorption. In addition, the optimal Schottky barrier not only accelerates the charge dynamics through the driving force of the Schottky junction but also prevents the flow of electrons trapped by Pd NPs back to ASTO, which greatly improves the interfacial carrier separation efficiency for photocatalytic hydrogen production under simulated solar light irradiation. This work reveals key insights into the construction of Schottky heterojunctions in the field of photocatalytic hydrogen production.