Photo-catalytic water splitting : TiO2 – GO for water splitting

Abstract

This work shows results obtained in photocatalytic water splitting for production of hydrogen (H2) using Graphene Oxide – additioned Titanium photocatalysts, P25–GO (Degussa P25 with Graphene Oxide) with different proportion in weight of GO (0.5, 2 and 4 %). Materials were characterized by DRX, FTIR, Raman, UV-vis and SEM. The phases detected by XRD characterization are anatase and rutile of TiO2 and GO, this is confirmed by means of Raman spectroscopy. In FTIR spectra, presence of GO and reduced (rGO) in the impregnated P25–GO photocatalysts was observed. UV-Vis spectroscopy (diffuse reflectance) and applying the Kubelka–Munk theory, it was observed that incorporation of GO to TiO2 lead to a shifted of the Eg towards visible region in the interval of 2.96–3.14 eV. The reaction for H2 production was monitored during 6 hours of reaction at room temperature and by means of a Shimadzu GC-2014 chromatograph. Where maximum production of H2 was obtained with the P25–GO 2% photocatalyst with 45,006 μmol and secondly P25–GO 4% with 21,922 μmol, using a UV vapor lamp of Hg.