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Spectral up-conversion (UC) has been attracting growing interest for the effective harvesting of the near-infrared (NIR) part of sunlight for photocatalytic hydrogen production and environmental purification. We present evidence of NIR-to-UV-VIS photon conversion for degradation of organic dyes and hydrogen and oxygen evolution via water-splitting by TiO2 and Rh–Cr oxide-loaded SrTiO3:Al photocatalysts, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A photoanode prepared from flux-synthesized Al-doped SrTiO3 by the particle transfer method with a Ta contact layer exhibited a high IPCE of 69% at 320 nm. The photocatalytic activity of SrTiO3 particles was very sensitive to the synthesis method used to make the SrTiO3 particles, while its photoelectrochemical performance was not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tantalum oxynitride (TaON) and tantalum nitride (Ta3N5) are investigated in detail as visible-light-responsive photocatalysts. It is found that TaON and Ta3N5 evolve H2 or O2 via band-gap excitation in the presence of a sacrificial electron donor or acceptor, respectively. These materials exhibit high stability against photo-corrosion under the reaction conditions for H2 and O2 evolution. Structural and physical properties of these photocatalysts were also investigated in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tangible harvesting of the extensive near-infrared (NIR) range of solar radiation is an ambitious goal to enhance the efficiency for various energy and environmental applications where usually large parts of the solar spectrum are not efficiently utilized, there is plenty of energy at the bottom . In various areas of solar power engineering, in particular in photocatalysis, photon up-conversion (UC) has been attracting growing interest to bridge large band gaps of efficient photocatalysts by shifting NIR photons into UV-VIS ones. Here we highlight recent studies in the field of UC for the photonic activation of photocatalysts. We also present high intense UC UV-blue emissions from K 2 YbF 5 :Tm 3+ hydrothermal crystals under 980 nm laser excitation for degradation of organic-dyes, proving the role of the UC effect as a clear evidence of spectral shaping of light for photocatalytic environmental purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]