In recent years, intense research efforts have been directed towards the conversion of solar energy into thermal energy, electricity, and fuel. Among these types of conversion, solar fuel has attracted the attention of several researchers. In particular, novel materials in the form of suspensions and as electrode material have been explored as photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic materials for splitting water into hydrogen and/or oxygen. Among the several materials examined in-depth, titanium dioxide still continues to be researched extensively. This is primarily because it is relatively easy to prepare, characterize, and most importantly is not prone to photocorrosion under band gap illumination. Thus, titania based systems are ideal for exploration as a photocatalyst. Mesoporous materials are ideal platforms for dispersion of catalytically active materials since they have pore sizes that are relatively large and high specific surface areas and large pore volumes. Spatially isolated and well-dispersed titania nanoclusters on mesoporous materials intrinsically exhibit higher activities compared to bulk titanium dioxide semiconductors because of band gap edges.

Titania nanoclusters supported on siliceous mesoporous materials for photocatalytic water splitting

255th National Meeting (2018)

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