Effect of Na2CO3 addition on photocatalytic decomposition of liquid water over various semiconductor catalysis

✍ Scribed by K. Sayama; H. Arakawa

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 482 KB
• Volume: 77
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1010-6030
• DOI: 10.1016/1010-6030(94)80049-9

✦ Synopsis

Photocatalytic decomposition

of liquid water into H2 and Oz over various semiconductor catalysts, such as TiOz, Ta205 and ZrO,, suspended in pure water, was studied with a special interest on the effect of NazCOa addition. It was found, for the first time, that both RuOTTa20, and NiO,-Ta20, photocatalysts were able to decompose liquid water into H2 and Oz in pure water as well as,with the addition of Na2COa. It was speculated that a negative flat-band potential and wide band gap of the photocatalysts are very important for the stoichiometric decomposition of liquid water. Furthermore, the addition of Na&!Qs is very effective for the photocatalytic decomposition of water for Pt-Na 'Ii 0 2 '6 13, Pt-K,Ti,Ots and Pt-K.J%sOl~ catalysts which did not show photocatalytic activity in pure water. The significant effect of Na,CO, addition was observed commonly for both the TiO, catalyst system and the Pt-loaded catalyst system.