Photocatalytic splitting of water is one of the most promising techniques for converting light energy into hydrogen fuel. One approach is to develop various micro/nanostructures such as nanoparticles, nanosheets, nanotubes, nanowires, among which, hollow micro/nanostructures are emerging as a promising area because of their high surface area and high surface permeability with superior photocatalytic activities relative to conventional bulk materials. Here, we put forward a general approach to generate biomorphic TiO2 hollow spheres and hollow tubes using two species of bacterium cocci and bacillus as biotemplates, respectively. The hydrogen evolution rate of hollow structures is about 3.6 times higher than the solid counterpart and 1.5 times higher than P25-TiO2. This work demonstrates the structural effect on enhancing the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance which would pave a new pathway to tailor and improve catalytic properties over a broad range.

Bacteria-directed construction of hollow TiO2 micro/nano structures with enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity

245th National Meeting (2013)

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