Study on the photocatalytic property of La-doped CoO/SrTiO3 for water decomposition to hydrogen

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of La doping on the photocatalytic property of CoO/SrTiO3. The experimental results show that a suitable concentration of La doping greatly improved the photocatalytic activity of CoO/SrTiO3. The activity first increased, reached a maximum, and then decreased drastically with increasing doping concentration. The physical properties of the catalyst were characterized using XRD, SEM and UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra. The influence of loading amount of co-catalyst CoO on the photocatalytic activity of La-doped SrTiO3 was also studied and it was found that the optimum loading amount increased with increasing doping concentration. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.