Issue 14, 2021

M/TiO2 (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) catalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen production under UV and visible light irradiation

Abstract

In order to improve the photocatalytic response of TiO2 to UV and visible light for hydrogen photoproduction, low cost M/TiO2 semiconductor catalysts were prepared by the impregnation method of five different first row transition metals (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu or Zn) on a commercial titania support. The maximum hydrogen production efficiency was achieved for the Cu/TiO2 photocatalyst, with ∼5000 and ∼220 μmol h−1 g−1 H2 production rates for UV and visible irradiation, respectively. Ni/TiO2 and Co/TiO2 also showed a significant photocatalytic activity when UV light was used. The best performing catalyst, Cu/TiO2, was characterized by TEM and XPS measurements. The data showed that Cu was highly dispersed over the TiO2 support and the copper species existed as both reduced Cu0/Cu+ and oxidized Cu2+ on TiO2. Besides, during the hydrogen production reaction, the reduced Cu was partially oxidized to Cu2+ by the transfer of photogenerated holes under UV or visible light irradiation. With UV and visible lamps, the H2 production rates were higher than those obtained with non-impregnated TiO2 by factors of 16 and 3, respectively. These results demonstrated that a Cu/TiO2 photocatalyst could be considered a promising low-cost alternative to the well-known Pt/TiO2 system for hydrogen production, making the Cu-based catalyst an ideal cost-effective candidate for this reaction.

Graphical abstract: M/TiO2 (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) catalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen production under UV and visible light irradiation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
31 Okt 2020
Accepted
23 Mai 2021
First published
28 Mai 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Inorg. Chem. Front., 2021,8, 3491-3500

M/TiO2 (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) catalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen production under UV and visible light irradiation

L. Díaz, V. D. Rodríguez, M. González-Rodríguez, E. Rodríguez-Castellón, M. Algarra, P. Núñez and E. Moretti, Inorg. Chem. Front., 2021, 8, 3491 DOI: 10.1039/D0QI01311K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements