Facile adsorption-dry process to incorporate Cu Into TiO2 nanotube for highly efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production

Abstract

Cu species was introduced into TiO2 nanotube prepared by hydrothermal method via a facile adsorption-dry process. The fabricated sample exhibited excellent H2 generation activity (76.3 mmol h?1 g?1 catalyst), which was higher than most of the reported Cu incorporated TiO2 samples, even superior to some Pt/Pd/Au/Ni incorporated TiO2. Compared to wet impregnation and in-situ photo-deposition methods, the facile adsorption-dry process was much simpler but more efficient to introduce Cu species into TiO2 for H2 production. To fully understand the adsorption-dry process, characterizations of the samples were carried out by high-resolution transmission electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, BET surface area analysis, UV-visible spectrophotometer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that the facile adsorption-dry process could well maintain the morphology of TiO2 support, for instance, 1-D tubular structure and large BET surface area of TiO2 nanotube; moreover, the introduced Cu species was highly dispersed and intensively bonded with TiO2. All of these contributed to the high H2 generation activity.