Insight into the effect of OH modification on the piezo-photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of SrTiO3

Surface modification by hydrophilic functional group have a tremendous influence on the catalytic activity of photocatalyst, however, there are few reports on improving piezoelectric catalytic performance through surface functionalization. Herein, OH-modified SrTiO₃ was successfully obtained via a novel low-temperature solid-state precursor method and employed as a catalyst for photocatalytic, piezocatalytic and piezo-photocatalytic hydrogen production. Thanks to the super hydrophilic that is facilitating the contact of catalyst and water molecular and the more oxygen vacancies that can promote electron-hole separation, the photocatalytic, piezocatalytic and piezo-photocatalytic hydrogen generation of OH-modified SrTiO₃ (OH-STO) is about two times higher than pristine SrTiO₃ (STO). It is worth mentioning that the optimal piezo-photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of OH-STO (701.2 µmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹) is 5.3 times higher than the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution process of STO. This study presents a low-energy approach to the rational design of functional group modification nanomaterials that possess excellent piezo-photocatalytic performance.