TiO2-Au composite nanofibers for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

TiO2-based materials for photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) evolution have attracted much interest as a renewable approach for clean energy applications. TiO2-Au composite nanofibers (NFs) with an average fiber diameter of ∼160 nm have been fabricated by electrospinning combined with calcination treatment. In situ reduced gold nanoparticles (NPs) with uniform size (∼10 nm) are found to disperse homogenously in the TiO2 NF matrix. The TiO2-Au composite NFs catalyst can significantly enhance the photocatalytic H2 generation with an extremely high rate of 12440 μmol g-1 h-1, corresponding to an adequate apparent quantum yield of 5.11% at 400 nm, which is 25 times and 10 times those of P25 (584 μmol g-1 h-1) and pure TiO2 NFs (1254 μmol g-1 h-1), respectively. Furthermore, detailed studies indicate that the H2 evolution efficiency of the TiO2-Au composite NF catalyst is highly dependent on the gold content. This work provides a strategy to develop highly efficient catalysts for H2 evolution.