12 - Nanophotocatalysts for hydrogen production applications

Abstract

Presently, high worldwide demand for renewable fuel sources were developed because of emissions of carbon dioxide and formation of global warming from the usage of traditional sources. Solar energy is the main source because it can be used to convert it into hydrogen fuel through water-splitting techniques. To achieve low cost and more efficient hydrogen production from the reduction of water and carbon dioxide, nanophotocatalytic materials have been created. The hydrogen production by water splitting through the metal oxide and non metal oxide photocatalysts methods is very low. Due to the high band gaps and band edge positions of commercially available photocatalysts utilized for this production, these photocatalysts have been altered by dopants via various methods such as alteration of morphology structure and band edge positions, as well as reduction of the band gap. After, these materials have the ability to absorb the required amount of light in the region of visible light. This modification process can increase the hydrogen production efficiency to form solar energy via absorbing required amount of light. This chapter reviews the applications of hydrogen production by nanophotocatalysts via water-splitting techniques.