Non-Noble Nanoparticles Cocatalysts in TiO₂ for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production from Water. A review

Abstract

Among the many methods, the use of solar photocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen is the most promising one. The water splitting process mainly includes the following three steps: solar energy capture, transfer and separation of photogenerated charges, and catalytic protons to generate hydrogen. At present, a high number of studies mainly focus on the first and second steps, and there are relatively few studies garding the third step. The introduction of a co-catalyst can effectively improve the photocatalytic activity and increase the hydrogen production rate. Co-catalysts mainly include noble metal catalysts and non-noble metal catalysts. Although noble metal catalysts provide a better performance, their high price limits their wide application. Therefore, it is particularly important to develop efficient and inexpensive non-precious metal catalysts. This paper briefly summarizes the use of non-noble metal catalysts based on TiO₂ photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. The action mechanism and related synthesis methods of the co-catalysts are discussed, and the development direction of non-noble metal cocatalysts is briefly described.