Photoelectrochemical hydrogen production from water/methanol decomposition using Ag/TiO2 nanocomposite thin films

✍ Scribed by Naser Alenzi; Wei-Ssu Liao; Paul S. Cremer; Viviana Sanchez-Torres; Thomas K. Wood; Christine Ehlig-Economides; Zhengdong Cheng

• Book ID: 103832699
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 947 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-3199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.08.020

✦ Synopsis

Though less frequently studied for solar-hydrogen production, films are more convenient to use than powders and can be easily recycled. Anatase TiO 2 films decorated with Ag nanoparticles are synthesized by a rapid, simple, and inexpensive method. They are used to cleave water to produce H 2 under UV light in the presence of methanol as a hole scavenger. A simple and sensitive method is established here to monitor the time course of hydrogen production for ultralow amounts of TiO 2 . The average hydrogen production rate of Ag/TiO 2 anatase films is 147.9 AE 35.5 mmol/h/g. Without silver, it decreases dramatically to 4.65 AE 0.39 mmol/h/g for anatase TiO 2 films and to 0.46 AE 0.66 mmol/h/g for amorphous TiO 2 films fabricated at room temperature. Our method can be used as a high through-put screening process in search of high efficiency heterogeneous photocatalysts for solarhydrogen production from water-splitting.