Fabrication of SrTiO 3 Nanofibers for Hydrogen Production

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Fabrication of SrTiO3 Nanofibers for Hydrogen Production Lea Macaraig, Surawut Chuangchote, and Takashi Sagawa* Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT Water-splitting to form hydrogen was examined by using strontium titanate (SrTiO3) nanofibers as photocatalysts. SrTiO3 nanofibers were fabricated by hydrothermal treatment of amorphous titanium dioxide nanofibers, which were electrospun from the mixture of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), titanium(IV) butoxide, and acetylacetone. The hydrothermal treatment involved the reaction of amorphous TiO2 nanofiber template with strontium hydroxide octahydrate (Sr(OH)2·8H2O) for 20 hours at 120 ºC. The product was calcined to form crystalline SrTiO3 nanofibers, which were characterized via Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)/Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and tested their photocatalytic activities for the water splitting. The hydrogen production with the fabricated SrTiO3 nanofibers was found to be 6.1 ȝmol·h-1·g-1 catalyst, which is twice that of commercially available SrTiO3 nanoparticles (3.0 ȝmol·h-1·g-1 catalyst). INTRODUCTION Hydrogen is a clean source of energy since its combustion does not release CO2. Although highly desired, efficient production in terms of carbon and energy cost remains problematic. This is why its production from the direct splitting of water over a semiconductor material serving as a photocatalyst receives much attention over the years ever since Fujishima and Honda discovered the photocatalytic water-splitting over titanium dioxide (TiO2) [1]. However difficulties were encountered in the construction of large-area photoelectrodes. The use of the powder counterparts of these photoelectrodes as an alternative have been actively studied since powdered semidonductors are relatively cheaper to construct, chemically stable under light, and have larger surface areas [2]. Strontium titanate (SrTiO3) is a material, which is very promising for photocatalytic applications. Aside from its suitable electrical properties, SrTiO3 has excellent thermal stability, photocorrosion resistability, and good structure stability as the host for metal ion doping [3]. SrTiO3 nanoparticles have been fabricated from TiO2 with relatively high photocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution from water [4]. Relatively higher photocatalysis of SrTiO3 nanofibers for decomposition of Rhodamine B had also been reported [5]. In this work, SrTiO3 nanofibers based on electrospun TiO2 were newly prepared and examined their photocatalytic activity for hydrogen generation. EXPERIMENT

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Titanium dioxide nanofibers were prepared according to the previously reported procedure [6], wherein a solution of 4.0 g of titanium butoxide, 1.2 g of acetylacetone, and 0.8 g of polyvinylpyrrolidone in 10 mL methanol was electrospun. The electrospinning involved the loading of the said solution to a plastic syringe with a 22-gauge stainless steel needle used as the nozzle. This nozzle is connected to the positive po

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