Conversion of solar energy into hydrogen is one of the most promising renewable energy technologies. Photocatalytic
production of hydrogen from water, H2S and organic wastes using semiconductors is one of the potential strategies for
converting the sunlight energy into chemical energy. Korea government paid great attention to the hydrogen economy
and launched the HERC (Hydrogen Energy R&D Center) for supporting the R&D topics on hydrogen related
technologies. The key issue for realizing the commercial application of solar water splitting hydrogen production
technique is to find an efficient, stable and low-cost photocatalyst. Our research groups have continuously investigated
to find oxide and composite photocatalysts for photoelectrochemical cell with high efficiency using computational
design and synthesis method. But, fundamental research on semiconductor doping for band gap shifting and surface
chemistry modification is still required. Various reaction media containing sacrificial agents should be developed to
match with high activity photocatalysts to further improve the system efficiency. Water containing organic/inorganic
waste and sea water are particularly suggested in the consideration that all these water sources are the most available
water on the earth to the final commercial application of photocatalytic water splitting technique.
In view of this, we investigated new visible light nanostructured semiconductor photocatalyst especially in the field of composite metal oxide photocatalyst for solar hydrogen production from H2S. For this purpose, two methodologies using a quantum mechanical material design and the microscopic surface analysis on a nanometer scale are adopted. The catalysts are synthesized by our proprietary soft chemical approaches. Also, a demonstrative reaction system for the effective solar hydrogen production is presented.
Titania nanotubes (TiNTs) with high surface area were synthesized by hydrothermal reaction under strongly basic
condition and their photocatalytic application was explored. After preparing a series of CdS-TiNT composite films with
variation of the mole ratio (r) of TiNT/(CdS + TiNT), their photocatalytic activities for hydrogen production and the
photocurrent generation under the visible light irradiation were examined. In the aspect of light absorption for the
photocatalytic reaction, the CdS-TiNT composite films revealed similar amounts of absorption to their counterparts, i.e.,
CdS-TiO2 particulate series. However, the former showed less significant synergistic effect in the photocurrent
generation and lower photocatalytic activities compared to the latter. Consequently, it appears that TiNTs are not so
effective photocatalyic material in spite of their larger surface areas rather than TiO2 nano-particles, because they
indicate a poor crystallinity and a less intimate interaction or contact with CdS particles owing to the tubular
morphology and a readily agglomeration among themselves.
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