Significance of pH measurements in photocatalytic splitting of water using 355Â nm UV laser

The pH changes during the course of photocatalytic splitting of water significantly affect the band edges of the semiconductor and enhance or retard the rate of the splitting process. The measurements on pH changes provide deep insight regarding different processes occurring simultaneously in a photocatalytic process. The effect of pH on photocatalytic activity in splitting of water over WO3, TiO2 (rutile) and NiO by using a monochromatic light source such as laser at 355 nm wavelength was studied for the first time in this work.