A novel dual-bed photocatalytic water splitting system for hydrogen production

✍ Scribed by W. Yan; C.L. Zheng; Y.L. Liu; L.J. Guo

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 351 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-3199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.03.117

✦ Synopsis

A novel dual-bed system was designed to produce hydrogen through photocatalytic water splitting. The system was comprised of a photocatalytic reaction bed and a regeneration bed. Aqueous KI solution and Pt-loaded TiO 2 constituted the photocatalytic reaction bed where hydrogen was produced; meanwhile the hole scavenger iodide ion was oxidized into I 2. The effluent containing I 2 from the photocatalytic bed entered the regeneration bed and passed through a Cu 2 O layer where I 2 was reduced to I À . The regeneration bed effluent was then recycled to the photocatalytic reaction bed. Since the hole scavenger KI in the photocatalytic bed was constantly kept at a high level through the continuous reduction of I 2 in the regeneration bed, steady production of hydrogen was achieved in the dual-bed system for a much longer period as compared to a single-bed system without regeneration.