Photocatalytic water splitting of ternary graphene-like photocatalyst for the photocatalytic hydrogen production

Abstract

In recent times, there has been an increasing demand for energy which has resulted in an increased consumption of fossil fuels thereby posing a number of challenges to the environment. In the course finding possible solutions to this environmental canker, solar photocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen gas has been identified as one of the most promising methods for generating renewable energy. To retard the recombination of photogenerated carriers and improve the efficiency of photocatalysis, the present paper reports a facile method called the hydrothermal method, which was used to prepare ternary graphene-like photocatalyst. A “Design Expert” was used to investigate the influence of the loading weight of Mo and GO as well as the temperature of hydrothermal reaction and their interactions on the evolution of hydrogen (H2) in 4 h. The experimental results showed that the ternary graphene-like photocatalyst has a strong photocatalytic hydrogen production activity compared to that of pure SiC. In particular, the catalyst added 2.5 wt% of GO weight yielded the highest quantum of 21.69 % at 400–700 nm of wavelength. The optimal evolution H2 in 4 h conditions was obtained as follows: The loading weight of Mo was 8.19 wt%, the loading weight of GO was 2.02 wt%, the temperature of the hydrothermal reaction was 200.93°C. Under the optimum conditions, the evolution of H2 in 4 h could reach 4.2030 mL.