Photocatalytic Generation of H2 Gas from Neat Ethanol over Pt/TiO2 Nanotube Catalysts

Abstract

TiO 2 nanotubes promoted with Pt metal were prepared and tested to be the photocatalytic dehydrogenation catalyst in neat ethanol for producing H 2 gas ðC 2 H 5 OH ! C 3 CHO þ H 2 Þ. It was found that the ability to produce H 2 , the liquid phase product distribution and the catalyst stability of these promoted nano catalysts all depended on the Pt loading and catalyst preparation procedure. These Pt/TiO 2 catalysts with TiO 2 nanotubes washed with diluted H 2 SO 4 solution produced 1, 2-diethoxy ethane (acetal) as the major liquid phase product, while over those washed with diluted HCl solution or H 2 O, acetaldehyde was the major liquid phase product.

Adsorption behavior of Cu(II) onto titanate nanofibers prepared by alkali treatment

“…They have structures in which TiO 6 octahedra join each other to form layers with negative charges and Na + ions existing within the layers are ion exchangeable [22]. The nanostructured titanates have been successfully used in many applications, such as photocatalysts [24,25], hydrogen storage [26] and lithium batteries [27,28]. Due to the cation exchange ability [17] and large surface area [29], they also have the potential to be used as effective adsorbents for heavy metal removal from wastewater.…”

Study of Pd(II) adsorption over titanate nanotubes of different diameters

“…Indeed, titanate nanotubes exhibit a high cation exchange capacity, an open mesoporous morphology, a high specific surface area, a wide band gap semiconductor properties [8] and relatively good stability at elevated temperatures [9,10]. These nanostructured materials have great potential for applications as mesoporous catalyst support in heterogeneous catalysis [11][12][13], photocatalysis [14,15] and medical utilities [16]. Impregnation of metallic nanoparticles (Pd, Pt, Ag, etc.)…”

“…Impregnation of metallic nanoparticles (Pd, Pt, Ag, etc.) on these porous nanomaterials allows obtaining interesting catalysts for different chemical reactions like hydrogenation [12,17], dehydrogenation [11], and oxidation [13][14][15]. Due to their large specific surface, the morphology, the crystallinity and the porosity of such materials have a considerable effect on their catalytic properties.…”

Deposition of Pt, Pd, Ru and Au on the surfaces of titanate nanotubes

“…These multilayered nanomaterials have a well developed lamellar structure corresponding to one of the following crystal structures: H 2 Ti 3 O 7 [8], H 2 Ti 2 O 4 (OH) 2 [9], H 2 Ti 4 O 9 AEH 2 O [10] or TiO 2 -B [3]. The material shows promise in a variety of applications including hydrogen sensors [11], a substrate for hydrogen sorption [12,13], photocatalysis [14,15], acid catalysis [16] solar cell photosensitising [17], ion-exchange [18] and as a new generation of electrodes for lithium batteries [19,20] as well as for electrocatalysis [21,22].…”

“…The relatively low cost of the titanate nanotubes compared to the TiO 2 nanotubes produced by sol-gel template assisted methods, renders the present materials attractive for technological applications. Although titanate nanotubes demonstrate moderate catalytic activity as acid base catalysts [16,23] there are few demonstrated examples of the successful utilisation of titanate nanotubes as mesoporous catalyst supports for different nanoparticles: CdS decorated titanate nanotubes [24,25] in reaction of photocatalytic oxidation of dyes, Pd/TiO 2 nanotubes catalyst [26] for electro-oxidation of methanol, Pt/TiO 2 nanotubes photocatalyst for generation of H 2 [14], Au/TiO 2 nanotubes catalyst for water-gas shift reaction [27], RuO 2 /TiO 2 nanotubes electro-catalyst for reduction of CO 2 [22] and ruthenium (III) hydrated oxide deposited on titanate nanotubes for selective oxidation of alcohols [28].…”