Crystal Morphology of CuO-TiO₂ Nanotubes and the Glycerol Concentration on the Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation

Abstract

In this work, the CuO-TiO2 nanotubes with 3 wt.% CuO (CuO-TiO2 NTs) is prepared using the hydrothermal method and the wet-impregnation (WI) process with calcination post-treatments. The characteristics of the morphology and crystalline structure of CuO-TiO2 NTs are characterized by different characterization techniques including X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), … An off-line gas chromatograph equipped with thermal conductivity detector (TCD, HP 5890) is used to detect the presence of hydrogen gas under the visible light. The results indicate that the crystal morphology of CuO-TiO2 NTs specimens at different annealing temperatures effects on the performance of hydrogen generation. In addition, glycerol aqueous solution concentration variation could be controlled the amount of hydrogen generation under the visible light. Therefore, these phenomena can be applied to the clear energy field. Keywords: Nanotubes, Glycerol, CuO, TiO2, Photocatalytic hydrogen generation.