Doping regulates pyro-photo-electric catalysis to achieve efficient water splitting in Ba1−xSrxTiO3 through solar energy and thermal resources

Abstract

The use of renewable energies to produce hydrogen has been an important issue in recent years. In this paper, a Ba_1−xSr_xTiO₃ photoelectrode is designed on the basis of temperature and light excitation, and the influence of doping on pyro-photo-electric catalysis is explored by changing the doping amount of Sr²⁺ ions. Under the conditions of 50 °C temperature, illumination and external bias voltage, the current density of Ba_0.7Sr_0.3TiO₃ at 1.23 V vs. RHE is the highest, reaching 0.698 mA·cm⁻², which is significantly higher than the sum of photocurrent (0.427 mA·cm⁻²) and pyroelectric current (0.007 mA·cm⁻²). The main reason for the improvement of performance is that doping expands the response of semiconductors to visible light and the effect of a polarization built-in electric field. In this work, it is proposed to improve the pyro-photo-electric performance of the Ba_1−xSr_xTiO₃ photoelectrode by changing the Sr²⁺ doping concentration, improve the separation and transfer efficiency of carriers, and provide a practical method for designing semiconductor photoelectrodes with excellent catalytic performance.