High-Efficiently Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Production over Zn-Incorporated TiO2 Nanotubes

Abstract EN

To investigate the Zn dopant and nanotube morphology effects of TiO2 in electrochemical hydrogen production from the photo-splitting of methanol/water solution, we have designed a Zn-incorporated TiO2 nanotube (Zn-TNT) photocatalyst.

The TNT and Zn-TNT materials had a width of 70∼100 nm.

The hydrogen production over the Zn-TNT photocatalysts was higher than that over the TNT; specifically, 10.2 mL of H2 gas was produced after 9 hours when 0.5 g of 0.01 mol% Zn-TNT was used.

The zeta-potential values in aqueous solution determined by electrophoretic light scattering (ELS) had negative surface charges, which was related to the surface stability, and the absolute value was the largest in 0.01 mol% Zn-TNT.

On the basis of UV-visible and photoluminescence (PL) spectra results, the high photoactivity of Zn-TNT was attributed to the shift toward the visible region and increase of PL intensity due to the increased number of excited electrons and holes.