Advanced nanostructured titania photoactive materials for sustainable H2 production

The ability to control the structure of TiO2 in the nanometer scale has opened new opportunities and prospects of technology applications in different fields, in particular for materials for energy and solar fuel applications, either to produce hydrogen or as components of solar cells. After shortly introducing some aspects of the need of new photoactive materials and H2 production routes to address the challenge of realizing a sustainable energy production, this contribution discusses shortly, mainly from a personal perspective, three selected examples in the area of titania-based electrodes, catalysts and materials for sustainable energy: (i) ordered arrays of TiO2 nanotubes preparation by anodic oxidation as photo-anodes for photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) cells to produce solar fuels, (ii) thin titania films and Cu-doped titania catalysts as catalysis for H2 production by photo-reforming and -dehydrogenation and (iii) TiO2-CNTs nanocomposite films for photo-driven hydrogen leak sensors for fuel cell transportation.