The photothermal effect enhance visible light-driven hydrogen evolution using urchin-like hollow RuO2/TiO2/Pt/C nanomaterial

Abstract

The photothermal catalysis has attracted much attention as a new catalytic method. Utilization of self-generated heat instead of external heating source is an ideal approach for improving the performance of catalysts. Herein, a novel urchin-like hollow TiO2 photothermal nano-catalyst with spatially separated Pt and RuO2 dual cocatalysts combine with carbon layer (denoted as RuO2/TiO2/Pt/C) is reported for catalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light irradiation. The photothermal catalytic performance of the as-prepared catalysts was evaluated in relation to structural characterizations and the thermal effect of the carbon layer. The sandwich nanostructure of carbon layer, Pt NPs and TiO2 layer effectively support and protect Pt NPs from agglomeration and deactivation of Pt active sites. The hot electrons generated from carbon layer can participate in the photocatalytic reaction. Furthermore, the enhanced visible light absorption performance of TiO2 is explained by narrowing the band gap due to a small amount of doping carbon and reducing the penetration-loss of light via constructing the hollow structure. As a result, the synergy between the spatially separated Pt/RuO2 NPs and the thermal effect with carbon layer greatly improve the catalytic performance of the TiO2-based catalyst for hydrogen production under visible light irradiation.