Hydrogen production from methanol/water decomposition in a liquid photosystem using the anatase structure of Cu loaded TiO2TiO2

This study investigated the production of hydrogen over Cu (1, 5, 10 and 15  mol%)/TiO2TiO2 photocatalysts loaded with CuO, prepared by an impregnation method. The CuO (0 0 2 and 1 1 1 plane) peaks at 2θ=35.50∘θ=35.50∘ and 38.73° appeared with above 5 mol% loaded TiO2TiO2. The CuO component (Cu2p3/2)(Cu2p3/2) at 933.5–934 eV was shown in the XPS band of the Cu/TiO2Cu/TiO2 photocatalysts, which increased in size with increasing amount of loaded Cu. All of Ti2p3/2Ti2p3/2 bands for Cu/TiO2Cu/TiO2 appeared at 458.8 eV, which were assigned to Ti4+Ti4+, most likely due to pure TiO2TiO2. The measured full widths at half maximum (FWHM) of the Ti2pTi2p peaks for Cu/TiO2Cu/TiO2 were larger compared to that of pure TiO2TiO2; a larger FWHM implies a greater amount of less-oxidized metals. The ratios of metal-OH/metal-O in the O1s bands, which imply hydrophilicity, were increased in the Cu/TiO2Cu/TiO2 compared to pure TiO2TiO2. The production of H2H2 from methanol/water photodecomposition was greater over the Cu/TiO2Cu/TiO2 photocatalysts than over the pure TiO2TiO2; the production reached 13,500 μμmol after 10 h over 10 mol% Cu/TiO2Cu/TiO2.