Hydrogen production by tailoring the brookite and Cu2O ratio of sol-gel Cu-TiO2 photocatalysts

Near UV‐Irradiation of CuOx‐Impregnated TiO2 Providing Active Species for H2 Production Through Methanol Photoreforming

“…[6,7] Among the various methods employed for improving TiO 2 properties, doping with noble metals (Au, Pt, Pd) acting as co-catalysts has proven to be effective to enhance the photo-efficiency of titanium dioxide. [3,[8][9][10] Alternatively, doping with transition metal ions such as Cu, Fe, Co, Ni is a cheaper promising option. [6,9,[11][12][13] The advantages of adopting these species lie in their behavior as electron scavengers, thus limiting charge recombination.…”

“…Several studies report that Cu 2 O species are responsible for enhanced photocatalytic H 2 production from water. [8,9,25,37] On the other hand, the presence of CuO was argued by different authors to be responsible for the enhanced separation of photoinduced electrons and holes. [3,30,32,33] Similarly, Valero et al proposed that easily reduced Cu 2 + species could be responsible for higher Cu/P25 photoactivity.…”

“…Even though titanium dioxide in P25 form (80 : 20 w/w anatase:rutile) is considered one of the most promising commercial material for photocatalytic processes, it shows significant limitations, such as fast electron/hole recombination and absorption/activity restricted to the UV region due to its wide bandgap . Among the various methods employed for improving TiO 2 properties, doping with noble metals (Au, Pt, Pd) acting as co‐catalysts has proven to be effective to enhance the photo‐efficiency of titanium dioxide …”

“…Several studies report that Cu 2 O species are responsible for enhanced photocatalytic H 2 production from water . On the other hand, the presence of CuO was argued by different authors to be responsible for the enhanced separation of photoinduced electrons and holes .…”

Enhancement of Titania Photoanode Performance by Sandwiching Copper between Two Titania Layers

“…This E g vibrational mode showed an increasing full width at half maximum (FWHM) from 11.5 to 12.8 cm −1 with the Cu content raising. The increasing FWHM can be ascribed to structure regulation related to shortening of the Ti-O bond at this E g vibration mode [ 38 ]. Compared with bare TiO 2 photocatalyst, this weakness of Ti-O bond originated from the oxygen vacancies caused by metallic Cu reduction reaction and Jahn–Teller distortion from incorporation of Cu 2+ into TiO 2 crystal [ 12 ].…”