Non-noble metal Cu as a cocatalyst on TiO2 nanorod for highly efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

Abstract

Nanorod-like TiO2 photocatalysts with controllable particle size for hydrogen production were synthesized based on H2Ti3O7 precursors using hydrothermal and ion exchange methods. The characteristics of TiO2 photocatalysts, such as morphology, specific areas and crystalline quality, can be adjusted by changing hydrothermal conditions, thus optimizing its photocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution. The TiO2 nanorod possesses the highest photocatalytic activity, even higher than P25, when the hydrothermal temperature is 140 °C, which should be ascribed to its large specific area and good crystalline quality. Non-noble metal Cu as a substitute of Pt was loaded on the surface of TiO2 nanorod to promote the photocatalytic hydrogen production. It was confirmed that, during the photocatalytic reaction process, Cu0 rather than CuOx acted as active sites to enhance the photocatalytic activity. The highest photocatalytic H2 evolution rate of Cu/TiO2 reaches 1023.8 μmol·h−1 when the amount of loading is 0.1 wt%, reaching the 20 times of that of bare TiO2 (49.4 μmol·h−1) and approaching that of Pt/TiO2 (1161.7 μmol·h−1). Non-noble metal Cu not only facilitated the separation of carriers, but reduced the overpotential of hydrogen evolution, thus promoting the photocatalytic activity for hydrogen production.