Novel reduced graphene oxide wrapped-SrTiO3 flower-like nanostructure with Ti-C bond for free noble metal decomposition of formic acid to hydrogen

Herein, a novel RGO wrapped-SrTiO3 flower-like nanostructure was synthesized for H-2 evolution from FA/SF solution. The as-prepared catalyst exhibits superior activity for H-2 evolution (334.68 mu mol g(-1) for 2 h) compared to SrTiO3 and other RGO-SrTiO3 catalysts. The role of the RGO content on the morphologies of RGO-SrTiO3 catalysts and their catalytic hydrogen evolution activity were explored. The obtained catalysts were confirmed by Xray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy (Raman). The results indicated that the RGO content allowed a good control on morphology of SrTiO3 particles in RGO-SrTiO3 catalysts and SrTiO3 particles were wrapped by RGO sheets and showed typical flower-like morphology at pertinent content of 6 wt%. The Ti-C bond between the RGO sheets and SrTiO3 nanoparticles play a key role in promoting the catalytic activity formic acid decomposition to hydrogen.