Title : Photocatalytic performance of the polyhedral SrTiO3 and composite materials with multi-band response in flexible photovoltaic
Abstract:
The cubic SrTiO3 is a well-known perovskite semi-conductor as the excellent dielectric and piezoelectric properties. However, due to the bandgap width of 3.2 eV, it has only shown excellent photocatalytic performance under the ultraviolet light band. Based on the decade of research, using the methods of hydrothermal, molten salt, ions doping, and surface modification, the research team led by the author had synthesized various SrTiO3 photocatalytic materials including the polyhedral SrTiO3, hollow-cage SrTiO3, the related composite materials, and a unique composite of polyhedral SrTiO3 and quantum dots. Importantly, the innovative SrTiO3 with 26-facet and hollow cage morphology were first synthesized, which had never been reported before. Moreover, in aspects of crystal structure, thermal stability and chemical stability, the polyhedral SrTiO3 crystals showed distinguishing and excellent performances, as well as the carrier transport characteristics and photoelectric conversion capabilities verified by multiple experiments. Simultaneously, the author proposed a new excited complex with carbon nanotubes and polyhedral SrTiO3 expected for flexible photovoltaic. The spatial configuration of the polyhedral STO-CNT composite is a hanging structure on the outer wall, and STO nanoparticles grow firmly on the outer wall of the CNT. Due to the special structure-activity relationship between STO and CNT, photogenerated carriers achieve a "point to line" charge transfer mode. Therefore, the optoelectronic properties of photocurrent density with the polyhedral STO-CNT composite is increased by two orders of magnitude on the basis of pure STO, approaching milliampere level. In summary, as new photocatalytic materials, we are convinced that the polyhedral SrTiO3 and the related composite materials have great potentials for future applications in photocatalysis and green energy fields.
