The optical absorption and hydrogen production by water splitting of (Si,Fe)-codoped anatase TiO2 photocatalyst

The electronic and optical properties are studied using the density functional theory in (Si,Fe)-codoped anatase TiO2. The calculated results suggest that the synergistic effects of (Si,Fe) codoping can effectively induce the redshift of optical absorption edge, which leads to higher visible-light photocatalytic activity for hydrogen production by water splitting than pure anatase TiO2. To verify the reliability of our calculated results, nanocrystalline (Si,Fe)-codoped TiO2 is synthesized by a sol-gel-solvothermal method, and excellent absorption performance and photocatalytic activity for hydrogen production by water splitting are observed in our experiments. Copyright (C) 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.