Remarkable enhancement of photocatalytic performance in LaCrO3 through a controlled chemical reduction process

Lijun He; Jia Yang; Wenbin Guo; Yan Li; Alberto J Fernández-Carrión; Xiaojun Kuang

doi:10.1039/d2dt03806d

Remarkable enhancement of photocatalytic performance in LaCrO₃ through a controlled chemical reduction process

Dalton Trans. 2023 Apr 25;52(16):5336-5344. doi: 10.1039/d2dt03806d.

Authors

Lijun He¹, Jia Yang^{2

3}, Wenbin Guo², Yan Li¹, Alberto J Fernández-Carrión², Xiaojun Kuang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical and Magnetochemical Functional Materials, College of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541004, P. R. China. kuangxj@glut.edu.cn.
² MOE Key Laboratory of New Processing Technology for Nonferrous Metals and Materials, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Optical and Electronic Materials and Devices, Guangxi Universities Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Oxide Electronic Functional Materials and Devices, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541004, P. R. China. alberto@glut.edu.cn.
³ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangtze Normal University, Fuling, Chongqing 408100, P. R. China.

PMID: 36988586
DOI: 10.1039/d2dt03806d

Abstract

A controlled chemical reduction process was performed on LaCrO₃ assisted by CaH₂ at a relatively low temperature (773 K), and the impact on the photocatalytic and magnetic properties is discussed. The reduction process leads to the formation of oxygen vacancies that enhance photocatalytic properties by acting as traps that retard the hole/electron recombination processes. In addition, the existence of oxygen defects induces some subtle structural modifications, resulting in Cr-O-Cr angle variation that influences the magnetic behavior of the material. Therefore, the use of a controlled chemical reduction process is an effective method for tunning the physical-chemical properties of transition-metal oxide-based materials, even in cases with high chemical stability.