Hydrogen evolution from water by harnessing clean and abundant solar energy depicts a blue print of the ultimate solution regarding current global energy crisis and environmental issues. Since the unprecedented work, in which hydrogen was discharged from pure water using a TiO2 photoelectrode and the auxiliary of Pt as a counter-electrode under UV light illumination, was published by Fujishima and Honda in 1972, a wealth of research interests have been devoted into this research field during the last few decades. A highly efficient, visible light motivated, photocatalytic system for solar hydrogen conversion can be developed by assembling CdS with TiO2 containing cubic MCM-48 mesoporous materials as composite photocatalysts. Powder X�ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption isotherm, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), UV�visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies were employed for the characterization of the CdS incorporated Ti-MCM-48 mesoporous materials. The photocatalytic activity of the CdS incorporated Ti-MCM-48 mesoporous photocatalysts was found to be dependent on the content of both CdS and TiO2. The highest solar hydrogen evolution rate by visible light irradiation from the splitting of water was determined to be 2.726 mmol/h/gcatalyst and the apparent quantum yield was estimated to be 36.3%.

Highly efficient visible light driven photocatalytic solar hydrogen evolution system by assembling CdS with Ti-MCM-48 mesoporous materials

247th National Meeting (2014)

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