Strong Intermixing Effects of LFO1−x/STOx toward the Development of Efficient Photoanodes for Photoelectrocatalytic Applications

Abstract

Aiming to improve the photocatalytic properties of transition metal perovskites to be used as robust photoanodes, [LaFeO3]1−x/[SrTiO3]x nanocomposites (LFO1−x/STOx) are considered. This hybrid structure combines good semiconducting properties and an interesting intrinsic remanent polarization. All the studied samples were fabricated using a solid-state method followed by high-energy ball milling, and they were subsequently deposited by spray coating. The synthesized compounds were demonstrated to possess orthorhombic (Pnma) and cubic (Pm3¯m) structures for LFO and STO, respectively, with an average grain size of 55–70 nm. The LFO1−x/STOx nanocomposites appeared to exhibit high visible light absorption, corresponding to band gaps of 2.17–3.21 eV. Our findings show that LFO0.5/STO0.5 is the optimized heterostructure; it achieved a high photocurrent density of 11 μA/cm2 at 1.23 V bias vs. RHE and an applied bias photo-to-current efficiency of 4.1 × 10−3% at 0.76 V vs. RHE, as demonstrated by the photoelectrochemical measurements. These results underline the role of the two phases intermixing LFO and STO at the appropriate content to yield a high-performing photoanode ascribed to efficient charge separation and transfer. This suggests that LFO0.5/STO0.5 could be a potential candidate for the development of efficient photoanodes for hydrogen generation via photoelectrocatalytic water splitting.