Divalent Cation Doping into SrTiO₃ for Enhancing the Photocatalytic Performance of Water Splitting

Perovskite SrTiO₃ (STO) is a widely used semiconductor photocatalyst whose photocatalytic activity is significantly influenced by cation doping. In this work, we explore effective divalent dopants to improve the photocatalytic performance of water splitting through both theoretical and experimental approaches. First-principles calculations suggest that divalent Mg²⁺ and Zn²⁺ are promising dopants replacing Ti⁴⁺ sites of STO to help mitigate charge recombination processes associated with defect levels caused by oxygen vacancies. Experimental analysis of synthesized STO confirms the photocatalytic performance, consistent with the theoretical predictions.