Photocatalytic hydrogen production enhanced by laser ablation in water–methanol mixture containing titanium(IV) oxide and graphite silica

Photocatalytic hydrogen production from methanol aqueous solution containing mixture of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and graphite silica (GS) was enhanced by laser ablation in liquid. It was found that the amount of hydrogen gas evolved in lased GS–TiO2 was less than that in raw GS–TiO2 mixture. However, the amount of hydrogen gas with the mixture of raw TiO2 and lased GS was two times as large as that of the raw GS–TiO2 mixture. This enhancement effect may be attributed to increase in the reaction surface area by the fine-subdivided GS particles and the aggregation of lased GS and raw TiO2.