Electrospun nanofibers for photocatalytic water treatment and hydrogen generation application: A review

Abstract

Clean and green energy are frontline research areas today worldwide to substitute the fossil based fuel to minimize greenhouse effect. Hydrogen is one of the prominent clean and green energy alternate to fossil fuels. It is a high calorific, carbon free renewable energy. Hydrogen is abundantly available on earth in combined form such as water, hydrocarbons, natural gases etc. Efficient generation of hydrogen from these sources without making pollution is an utmost priority. Photocatalytic hydrogen generation by splitting water using sunlight is one of the recent research areas of interest due to abundant availability of solar energy. Advanced research on photocatalytic materials is needed to accelerate H2 generation using solar energy. Among various forms of photocatalytic materials, nanofiber based metal/metal oxide semiconducting materials owing to their unique physio-chemical properties show great potential for splitting of water over other nanostructured materials. In this review article, various nanostructure semiconducting materials used for photocatalytic water splitting are presented with a special emphasis on electrospun nanofibers. Various factors affecting the photocatalytic conversion efficiency, modification and performance enhancement strategies of various types of nanofibers (oxides and non-oxides) for generation of hydrogen from water is presented. Comparison of photocatalytic and photo-electrochemical processes for water treatment are also discussed. Novelty of the paper lies on advantages of nanofibrous materials over traditional nano particles for photocatalytic H2 generation. Also, the challenges and future prospectus of electrospun nanofiber based photocatalytic materials towards hydrogen generation are discussed.