Synergistic Effect of Titanate-Anatase Heterostructure and Hydrogenation-Induced Surface Disorder on Photocatalytic Water Splitting

Black TiO2 obtained by hydrogenation has attracted enormous attention due to its unusual photocatalytic activity. In this contribution, a novel photocatalyst containing both a titanate–anatase heterostructure and a surface disordered shell was in situ synthesized by using a one-step hydrogenation treatment of titanate nanowires at ambient pressure, which exhibited remarkably improved photocatalytic activity for water splitting under simulated solar light. The as-hydrogenated catalyst with a heterostructure and a surface disordered shell displayed a high hydrogen production rate of 216.5 μmol·h–1, which is ∼20 times higher than the Pt-loaded titanate nanowires lacking of such unique structure. The in situ-generated heterostructure and hydrogenation-induced surface disorder can efficiently promote the separation and transfer of photoexcited electron–hole pairs, inhibiting the fast recombination of the generated charge carriers. A general synergistic effect of the heterostructure and the surface disordered shell on photocatalytic water splitting is revealed for the first time in this work, and the as-proposed photocatalyst design and preparation strategy could be widely extended to other composite photocatalytic systems used for solar energy conversion.