In situ exsolution of silver nanoparticles on AgTaO3-SrTiO3 solid solutions as efficient plasmonic photocatalysts for water splitting

Starting from two wide band gap semiconductors AgTaO 3 and SrTiO 3 , we managed to reduce the band gap by forming their solid solutions, i.e. (AgTaO 3 ) 1-x (SrTiO 3 ) x (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0). These solid solutions all adopt cubic perovskite structure similar to SrTiO 3 and high temperature phase of AgTaO 3 , suggesting that SrTiO 3 is helpful to stabilize AgTaO 3 in its high temperature cubic phase. Substantial improvements over photocatalytic hydrogen production were realized in these solid solutions which clearly outperform their parent compounds AgTaO 3 and SrTiO 3 . In-situ exolution of silver nanoparticles at the surface of solid solutions (x = 0.2) substantially strengthen the visible light absorption due to localized surface plasmons of these silver nanoparticles . This contributes to further improvements on both photocatalytic hydrogen and oxygen production under visible light illumination (λ ≥ 400 nm). Apparent quantum efficiency as high as ˜ 2.02% and ˜ 0.11% was achieved at solid solutions (x = 0.2) decorated with silver nanoparticles for full range (λ ≥ 250 nm) and visible light (λ ≥ 400 nm) illumination respectively. Photoelectrochemical analysis suggests that solid solutions own a better charge separation conditions than their parent compounds. Furthermore, the band edge positions of solid solutions (x = 0.2) lie approximately in the middle between AgTaO 3 and SrTiO 3 , being ideal for solar water splitting reactions.