Perovskite-related Oxynitrides in Photocatalysis

Authors

  • Simone Pokrant Laboratory for Solid State Chemistry and Catalysis Empa Überlandstrasse 129 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland. simone.pokrant@empa.ch
  • Alexandra E. Maegli Laboratory for Solid State Chemistry and Catalysis Empa Überlandstrasse 129 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
  • Gian Luca Chiarello Laboratory for Solid State Chemistry and Catalysis Empa Überlandstrasse 129 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
  • Anke Weidenkaff Laboratory for Solid State Chemistry and Catalysis Empa Überlandstrasse 129 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2013.162

Keywords:

Oxynitrides, Perovskites, Photocatalysis, Water splitting

Abstract

Over the last decades photocatalytic water splitting has become of increasing importance for fundamental and applied research, since the direct conversion of sunlight into chemical energy via the production of H2 has the potential to contribute to the world's energy needs without CO2 generation. One of the unsolved challenges consists of finding a highly efficient photocatalyst that is cheap, environmentally friendly, contains exclusively abundant elements, is (photo)chemically stable and absorbs visible light. Photocatalytic efficiency is closely connected to both structural properties like crystallinity, particle size and surface area and to electronic properties like the band gap and the quantum efficiency. Hence extensive control over a large parameter field is necessary to design a good photocatalyst. A material class where the structure-composition-property relations and the influence of substitution effects are well studied is the perovskite-type family of compounds. The perovskite-related oxynitrides belong to this very flexible compound family where many of the necessary characteristics for a photocatalyst are already given and some of the intrinsic properties like the band gap can be tuned within the same crystal structure by substitution. In this work we present materials' design concepts to improve the photocatalytic efficiency of a perovskite-type catalyst and describe their effects on the photocatalytic activity.

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Published

2013-03-27

How to Cite

[1]
S. Pokrant, A. E. Maegli, G. L. Chiarello, A. Weidenkaff, Chimia 2013, 67, 162, DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2013.162.

Issue

Section

Scientific Articles