Effective hydrothermal grafting of Eosin Y onto TiO2 nanoparticles towards stable photocatalysts for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic H2 evolution

Abstract

Herein, we report a simple hydrothermal method for effectively grafting the Eosin Y (EY) dye onto TiO₂ nanoparticles to afford a stable EY-sensitized TiO₂ photocatalyst (EY-TiO₂-HT), which shows an improved and stable H₂ evolution activity under visible light (520 nm), achieving a 2.2 times higher turnover number for H₂ evolution versus dye than the physical mixture of EY and TiO₂ (EY-TiO₂-mix).