Hydrogen production from water splitting of real-time industry effluent using novel photocatalyst

Abstract

The simultaneous degradation of real-time industrial effluent and hydrogen production was carried out in this study, taking into account the global clean energy demand. A novel photocatalyst based on a metal–organic framework and spindle-shaped titanium dioxide nanoparticles was synthesized to perform photocatalytic water splitting reactions. The resulting composite (MIL-53@TiO2, MIL: Matériaux de l′Institut Lavoisier) was characterized by standard analytical methods. The photocatalytically active MIL-53@TiO2 composite produced hydrogen without using any sacrificial agents. The hydrogen production was observed to be0.26 mmol in the presence of TiO2 which increased to 7.9 mmol in the presence of MIL-53@TiO2 composite after 180 min of irradiation. Thecorrespondinghydrogen evolution rate was26.33 mmol h-1g−1, which was observed 30 times higher than the pristine materials. The remarkable photoactivity was due the superior charge separation property and less recombination of the charge carrier pair in the MIL-53@TiO2 composite. Furthermore, the photocatalyst exhibited excellent reusability for hydrogen production up to 4 cycles. The results shown in the present work may be extended for large-scale applications.