Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution by co-catalyst-free TiO₂/C bulk heterostructures synthesized under mild conditions.

ABSTRACT: Hydrogen production by photocatalytic water splitting is one of the most promising sustainable routes to store solar energy in the form of chemical bonds. To obtain significant H₂ evolution rates (HERs) a variety of defective TiO₂ catalysts were synthesized by means of procedures generally requiring highly energy-consuming treatments, e.g. hydrogenation. Even if a complete understanding of the relationship between defects, electronic structure and catalytic active sites is far from being achieved, the band gap narrowing and Ti³⁺-self-doping have been considered essential to date. In most reports a metal co-catalyst (commonly Pt) and a sacrificial electron donor (such as methanol) are used to improve HERs. Here we report the synthesis of TiO₂

SUBMITTER: Imparato C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9051216 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature