1. C-, N-, S-, and Fe-Doped TiO2and SrTiO3Nanotubes for Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Water Splitting: Prediction from First Principles
- Author
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Piskunov, Sergei, Lisovski, Oleg, Begens, Jevgenijs, Bocharov, Dmitry, Zhukovskii, Yuri F., Wessel, Michael, and Spohr, Eckhard
- Abstract
The ground state electronic structure and the formation energies of both TiO2and SrTiO3nanotubes (NTs) containing CO, NO, SO, and FeTisubstitutional impurities are studied using first-principles calculations. We observe that N and S dopants in TiO2NTs lead to an enhancement of their visible-light-driven photocatalytic response, thereby increasing their ability to split H2O molecules. The differences between the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied impurity levels inside the band gap (HOIL and LUIL, respectively) are reduced in these defective nanotubes down to 2.4 and 2.5 eV for N and S doping, respectively. The band gap of an NO+SOcodoped titania nanotube is narrowed down to 2.2 eV (while preserving the proper disposition of the gap edges relatively to the reduction and oxidation potentials, so that εHOIL< ϵO2/H2O< ϵH+/H2< ϵLUIL), thus decreasing the photon energy required for splitting of H2O molecule. For C- and Fe-doped TiO2NTs, some impurity levels lie in the interval between both redox potentials, which would lead to electron–hole recombination. Our calculations also reveal in sulfur-doped SrTiO3NTs a suitable band distribution for the oxygen evolution reaction, although the splitting of water molecules would be hardly possible due to an unsuitable conduction band position for the hydrogen reduction reaction.
- Published
- 2015
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