A Novel Sr_2CuInO_3S p-type semiconductor photocatalyst for hydrogen production under visible light irradiation

Abstract

A novel Sr 2 CuInO 3 S oxysulfide p-type semiconductor photocatalyst has been prepared by solid state reaction method and it exhibits intriguing visible light absorption properties with a bandgap of 2.3 eV. The p-type semiconductor character of the synthesized Sr 2 CuInO 3 S was confirmed by Hall efficient measurement and Mott-Schottky plot analysis. First-principles density functional theory calculations (DFT) and electrochemical measurements were performed to elucidate the electronic structure and the energy band locations. It was found that the as-synthesized Sr 2 CuInO 3 S photocatalyst has appreciate conduction and valence band positions for hydrogen and oxygen evolution, respectively. Photocatalytic hydrogen production experiments under a visible light irradiation (λ>420 nm) were carried out by loading different metal and metal-like cocatalysts on Sr 2 CuInO 3 S and Rh was found to be the best one among the tested ones