Co-catalyst-free photocatalytic hydrogen evolution on TiO2: Synthesis of optimized photocatalyst through statistical material science

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Authors

  • Yamen AlSalka
  • Amer Hakki
  • Jenny Schneider
  • Detlef W. Bahnemann

External Research Organisations

  • University of Aberdeen
  • Saint Petersburg State University
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Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)422-433
Number of pages12
JournalApplied Catalysis B: Environmental
Volume238
Early online date17 Jul 2018
Publication statusPublished - 15 Dec 2018

Abstract

An active TiO 2 for co-catalyst-free photocatalytic hydrogen evolution was successfully synthesized employing a simple Evaporation-Induced Self-Assembly (EISA) method that was developed and optimized with the help of Design of Experiment (DoE) coupled with Full Factorial Design (FFD) methodology. Coupling DoE with FFD provides a statistical tool for optimizing the synthesis process while carrying out the smallest number of experiments. This tool builds a statistical framework to determine the significance of the studied factors, i.e., titanium-precursor type, surfactant type and surfactant quantity, along with their potential interactions, as well as with their optimum levels. The choice of the titanium-precursor type is found to be the predominant factor affecting the efficiency of TiO 2 for hydrogen gas evolution. The interaction between precursor type and surfactant type is also statistically significant. The statistically optimized study identifies that combining F-108 amphiphilic block copolymers with titanium(III) chloride solution leads to TiO 2 exhibiting the highest photocatalytic efficiency for the generation of molecular hydrogen. The thus prepared TiO 2 shows relatively high photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rates (1.22 mmol h −1 g −1) compared to the commercially available TiO 2 photocatalysts which are not active for hydrogen generation in the absence of a co-catalyst. Significant photocatalytic reforming of ethanol is achieved over the synthesized bare TiO 2 with the formation of acetaldehyde as the main by-product in the gas phase. This unexpected photocatalytic performance is mainly attributed to the shift of flat band potential towards more negative potentials as revealed from the characterization results in addition to the high density of charge carriers exhibiting longer lifetime shown by laser transient reflectance measurements. The latter showed the presence of a high number of trapped states, which are beneficial for the photocatalytic properties.

Keywords

    Design of experiment, EISA, Molecular hydrogen evolution, Photocatalysis, TiO

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cite this

Co-catalyst-free photocatalytic hydrogen evolution on TiO2: Synthesis of optimized photocatalyst through statistical material science. / AlSalka, Yamen; Hakki, Amer; Schneider, Jenny et al.
In: Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Vol. 238, 15.12.2018, p. 422-433.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

AlSalka Y, Hakki A, Schneider J, Bahnemann DW. Co-catalyst-free photocatalytic hydrogen evolution on TiO2: Synthesis of optimized photocatalyst through statistical material science. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental. 2018 Dec 15;238:422-433. Epub 2018 Jul 17. doi: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2018.07.045
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abstract = "An active TiO 2 for co-catalyst-free photocatalytic hydrogen evolution was successfully synthesized employing a simple Evaporation-Induced Self-Assembly (EISA) method that was developed and optimized with the help of Design of Experiment (DoE) coupled with Full Factorial Design (FFD) methodology. Coupling DoE with FFD provides a statistical tool for optimizing the synthesis process while carrying out the smallest number of experiments. This tool builds a statistical framework to determine the significance of the studied factors, i.e., titanium-precursor type, surfactant type and surfactant quantity, along with their potential interactions, as well as with their optimum levels. The choice of the titanium-precursor type is found to be the predominant factor affecting the efficiency of TiO 2 for hydrogen gas evolution. The interaction between precursor type and surfactant type is also statistically significant. The statistically optimized study identifies that combining F-108 amphiphilic block copolymers with titanium(III) chloride solution leads to TiO 2 exhibiting the highest photocatalytic efficiency for the generation of molecular hydrogen. The thus prepared TiO 2 shows relatively high photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rates (1.22 mmol h −1 g −1) compared to the commercially available TiO 2 photocatalysts which are not active for hydrogen generation in the absence of a co-catalyst. Significant photocatalytic reforming of ethanol is achieved over the synthesized bare TiO 2 with the formation of acetaldehyde as the main by-product in the gas phase. This unexpected photocatalytic performance is mainly attributed to the shift of flat band potential towards more negative potentials as revealed from the characterization results in addition to the high density of charge carriers exhibiting longer lifetime shown by laser transient reflectance measurements. The latter showed the presence of a high number of trapped states, which are beneficial for the photocatalytic properties. ",
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AU - Bahnemann, Detlef W.

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