Improved Photolysis of Water from Ti Incorporated Double Perovskite Sr2FeNbO6 Lattice

The Ti incorporation at Fe-site in the double perovskite lattice of $Sr_2FeNbO_6$ (SFNO) system is studied. The Ti concentration optimization yielded an efficient photocatalyst. At an optimum composition of Ti as x = 0.07 in $Sr_2Fe_{1-x}Ti_xNbO_6$, the photocatalyst exhibited 2 times the quantum yield for photolysis of $H_2O$ in presence of $CH_3OH$, than its undoped counterpart under visible light (${\lambda}{\geq}420nm$). Heavily Ti-doped $Sr_2Fe_{1-x}Ti_xNbO_6$ lattice exhibited poor photochemical properties due to the existence of constituent impurity phases as observed in the structural characterization, as well as deteriorated optical absorption. The higher electron-density acquired by n-type doping seem to be responsible for the more efficient charge separation in $Sr_2Fe_{1-x}Ti_xNbO_6$ (0.05 < x < 0.4) and thus consequently displays higher photocatalytic activity. The Ti incorporated structure also found to yield stable photocatalyst.