Enhancing Hydrogen Production through Integration of Electrolysis and Photocatalysis in a Cell

Abstract

We present a new method for hydrogen production that combines photocatalysis and electrolysis in a cell. TiO2 was doped with Ni and nitrogen to form Ni-TiO2 and N-Ni-TiO2 photocatalysts. XRD, UV-Vis, and SEM techniques were used to characterize the resulting samples. The Ni-TiO2 and N-Ni-TiO2 samples had anatase structures with energy gaps of 2.77 eV and 2.03 eV, respectively. A 50-watt UV lamp with a wavelength of 254 nm was used as the photon source. Our results indicate that this method produces more hydrogen than the sum of hydrogen generated by separate electrolysis and photocatalysis methods. The N-Ni-TiO2 sample produced the highest yield of HHO gas among the Ni-TiO2 and TiO2 p.a samples. The underlying mechanisms responsible for this improvement, including the role of the Ni and nitrogen doping, are discussed and analyzed.