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Synthesis of pure phase Mg1.2Ti1.8O5 and MgTiO3 nanocrystals for photocatalytic hydrogen production

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Abstract

Synthesis of pure phase Mg1.2Ti1.8O5 and MgTiO3 nanocrystals has proven to be challenging. Here, pure phase Mg1.2Ti1.8O5 and MgTiO3 nanocrystals were prepared. Furthermore, a new magnesium titanate, Mg1.2Ti1.8O5, was synthesized via a solution-based route for the first time. As hydrogen evolution photocatalysts, both pure phase Mg1.2Ti1.8O5 and MgTiO3 nanocrystals exhibit excellent hydrogen production efficiency. In comparison with pure MgTiO3 nanocrystals, the asprepared Mg1.2Ti1.8O5 nanocrystals exhibited four times as much photocatalytic hydrogen production activity, up to 40 μmol·h–1. Photoelectrochemical analysis, including linear sweep voltammetry, transient photocurrent measurement, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and construction of Mott-Schottky plots, demonstrated that the enhanced photocatalytic activity was attributed to the large surface area, fast photoelectron transfer, higher carrier density, and efficient charge separation of the Mg1.2Ti1.8O5 nanocrystals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, 150080, China

    Ning Zhang, Yang Qu, Kai Pan & Guofeng Wang

  2. Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Yadong Li

Authors
  1. Ning Zhang
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  2. Yang Qu
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  3. Kai Pan
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  4. Guofeng Wang
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  5. Yadong Li
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Correspondence to Yang Qu or Guofeng Wang.

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Zhang, N., Qu, Y., Pan, K. et al. Synthesis of pure phase Mg1.2Ti1.8O5 and MgTiO3 nanocrystals for photocatalytic hydrogen production. Nano Res. 9, 726–734 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-015-0951-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-015-0951-3

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