Synthesis of CdSe/SrTiO3 nanocomposites with enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production activity

The photocatalytic hydrogen production has become one of the most promising strategies to solve the energy crisis and environmental pollution. Novel CdSe/SrTiO 3 nanocomposites (average diameter ≈ 114.6 nm) with high photocatalytic activity are synthesized and used for visible light photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production . Through optimizing the concentration of CdSe QDs, CdSe/SrTiO 3 nanocomposites exhibit increased visible light absorption and enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution efficiency compared to SrTiO 3 nanoparticles. The maximum H 2 evolution amount reaches to 3350.53 μmol in 8 h by using CdSe/SrTiO 3 -3 as catalyst. Owing to the formation of heterojunction at the interface between CdSe and SrTiO 3 , the electrochemical impedance spectrum of CdSe/SrTiO 3 -3 exhibits the smallest arc radius and the photocurrent density of CdSe/SrTiO 3 -3 reaches to 0.26 μA cm −2 . The photogenerated electrons are effectively separated and transferred and the recombination of electron-hole pairs is avoided, thus significantly improving the photocatalytic hydrogen production performance of CdSe/SrTiO 3 nanocomposites.