Enhanced visible-light-driven H2 evolution over sol-gel prepared Nd2O3 supported with PtO nanoparticles

Abstract

The interest of hydrogen (H2) production become an important alternative resource of energy owing to its lightness, greenness, and renewability. The evolution of H2 in the water system utilizing photocatalysts is a promising approach. This work designed a visible-light-active nanostructured Nd2O3 supported with small portions (0.4–1.2 wt%) of PtO by a sol-gel-based process for competent photocatalytic evolution of H2 in glycerol/water system. The synthesized nanostructures unveiled mesoporous textures with 80–108 m2 g−1 of surface area from their adsorption/desorption isotherms. Likewise, the inclusion of PtO dots to Nd2O3 exposed the expansion of visible-light absorbance due to energy gap reduction from 4.56 for pristine Nd2O3 to 2.73 eV for 1.2% PtO/Nd2O3 as reviled from transmission electron microscopy and light spectroscopy analysis. The photocatalytic H2 production utilizing 1.2% PtO/Nd2O3 in the occurrence of hole scavenger, namely hexa-chloroplatinic acid achieved 3452-times larger than the pure Nd2O3. The optimized dosage of 1.2% PtO/Nd2O3domenstrated evolution of H2 production rate of 3.011 mmol g−1h−1with sustained reusability for five cycles at 98.5%. This efficient H2 production is attributed to the extensive light absorption besides effective reduction of bandgap owing to PtO inclusion that increases photoinduced carrier transference and powerful separation as confirmed by photoluminescence and photocurrent investigations.