Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation from Aqueous Methanol Solution over n-Butylamine-Intercalated Layered Titanate H2La2Ti3O10: Activity and Stability of the Hybrid Photocatalyst

Abstract

The stability of platinized n-butylamine-intercalated layered titanate H2La2Ti3O10 during the process of photocatalytic hydrogen production from aqueous methanol under UV irradiation has been thoroughly investigated by means of XRD, CHN, TG, 13C NMR, BET, SEM and GC-MS analysis. It was revealed that n-butylamine completely abandons the interlayer space and transforms into n-butyraldehyde within 3 h of the reaction, while the particle morphology and specific surface area of the photocatalyst are preserved. The resulting solid phase contains carbon in at least two different oxidation states, which are attributed to the intermediate products of methanol oxidation bound to the perovskite matrix. The activity of the photocatalyst formed in this way is stable in time and strongly depends on the medium pH, which is not typical of either the parent H2La2Ti3O10 or TiO2. An approximate linear equation φ ≈ 29−2∙pH holds for the apparent quantum efficiency of hydrogen production in the 220–340 nm range at 1 mol. % methanol concentration. In the acidic medium, the photocatalyst under study outperforms the platinized H2La2Ti3O10 by more than one order of magnitude. The variation in methanol concentration allowed a maximum quantum efficiency of hydrogen production of 44% at 10 mol. % to be reached.