Photocatalytic hydrogen production through ethanol photo-reforming using Na₂Ti₃O₇ whiskers increases if the sodium titanate is decorated with well-known metallic catalysts such as Ni and Pt. Whereas wet impregnation with nickel gives only a slight increase in the activity, photo-deposition of Pt increased the H₂ production by more than one order of magnitude. Through the combination of both co-catalysts (Ni and Pt) a superior performance in terms of H₂ production is further observed. However, hydrogen yield is largely enhanced (almost three-fold), up to 778 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹, if the Pt is photo-deposited on the surface of the catalyst before wet impregnation with Ni species (NTO/Pt/Ni) compared to H₂ yield (283 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹) achieved with the catalyst prepared in the reverse order (NTO/Ni/Pt). Structural, morphological, optical, and chemical characterization was carried out in order to correlate physicochemical properties with their photocatalytic activity. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show a higher concentration of Pt²⁺ species if this metallic layer is under the nickel oxide layer. Moreover, X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) show that Na₂Ti₃O₇ surface is modified for both metal decoration processes.

Ba₂Li_2/3Ti_16/3O₁₃ was synthesized for the first time by the flux method and evaluated for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction.