Plasmonic Ag nanoparticles decorated SrTiO3 nanocubes for enhanced photocatalytic CO2 reduction and H2 evolution under visible light irradiation

Herein, Ag decorated SrTiO3 nanocomposites (ASTO) were fabricated by solvothermal strategy. The resultant ASTO nanocomposites possess the broad plasmonic resonance absorption for visible light, achieving the obvious visible light photocatalytic CO2 reduction and H2 evolution performance. CO, CH4 and H2 were detected for CO2 reduction, but the photocatalytic system exhibits a high CO selectivity. The A0.5STO achieves the largest CO generation amount of 80.24 μmol·g−1. Moreover, the ASTO nanocomposite also shows an enhanced visible light photocatalytic H2 evolution rate of 264.5 μmol·g−1·h−1. The remarkable photocatalytic reduction performance should belong to the improved visible light absorption capacity benefitted from the localized surface plasmon resonance, and the improved electron extraction and transfer between Ag and STO in ASTO nanocomposite. Admittedly, the abundant reactive electrons over ASTO nanocomposites achieved efficient photocatalytic CO2 reduction and H2 evolution performance under visible light. Finally, photocatalytic reduction mechanism was investigated. The work provides a feasible controlled synthesis approach to fabricate plasmonic Ag decorated perovskite nanocomposite, achieving efficient visible light photocatalytic CO2 reduction and H2 generation.