Structural design of TiO₂-based photocatalyst for H₂ production and degradation applications

Abstract

TiO 2 -based photocatalyst being inexpensive and abundant in conjunction with high photostability and environmental friendly characteristics makes it the most extensively studied photocatalytic material for hydrogen production and pollutant degradation. However, its existing issues such as wide bandgap, high overpotential and rapid recombination of photogenerated carriers limit its photocatalytic properties. The opportunities for structural development of TiO 2 nanomaterial towards highly efficient and pragmatic photocatalysis applications are evidently plentiful. Hence in this review, we will look into critical structural engineering strategies that endow favorable physicochemical properties such as improved light absorption, photostability, charge-carrier dynamics, increase surface area etc. that benefit photocatalysis functionalities. Amongst the various structural engineering constitutions, we will be covering the most prevalent and elegant core-shell and hierarchical structural designs that rationally combine the advantages of structural manipulation and multi-material composition engineering. This review aims to provide a comprehensive and contemporary overview as well as a guide of the development of new generation TiO 2 based photocatalysts via structural design for improved solar energy conversion technologies.

Facile Synthesis and High Photocatalytic Degradation Performance of ZnO-SnO2 Hollow Spheres

“…As shown in Fig. 5, the as-prepared carbon spheres have a large number of functional groups in the surface such as –OH, C=O, which is conducive to the adsorption of metal ions to form core-shell composite spheres [23, 24]. Then calcined in air at 550 °C, the hollow spheres can be obtained by the oxidation of carbon spheres into CO 2 simultaneously and precursor with metal ions translates into metallic oxide.…”

A Review of Direct Z‐Scheme Photocatalysts

“…Among them, semiconductor‐based photocatalysis has captured substantial attention because of its ability to utilize sustainable solar energy for degradation of organic pollutants without causing any side effects to the environment. Although various semiconductors have been studied for photocatalytic degradation of pollutants, their photocatalytic performance remains unsatisfactory . Therefore, researchers have made enormous efforts toward developing novel photocatalytic systems with high photocatalytic activities.…”

A Kinetic Model of Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production Employing a Hole Scavenger

“…Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is the traditionally used photocatalyst, in which its electrons are promoted from the valence band (VB) to the conduction band (CB), generating a gap. Electrons and holes that migrate to the semiconductor surface without recombining can reduce and oxidize, respectively, the reactants adsorbed by the semiconductor to produce hydrogen , , . To avoid reconversion of the electron‐hole pair, noble‐metal particles have been used.…”