Photocatalytic H2 production activity of TiO2 modified by inexpensive Cu(OH)2 cocatalyst

Abstract Uniformly dispersed TiO2 nanosheets were synthesized and thereafter modified by Cu(OH)2 as a cocatalyst. The successful preparation of the composite catalyst was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The composite catalyst was applied to the photocatalytic hydrogen production. When the content of Cu(OH)2 reaches to 2%, the composite catalyst 2Cu-TiO2 (2%Cu(OH)2-TiO2) has the best photocatalytic hydrogen production activity, in which hydrogen production rate is 8.3 times that of pure TiO2. Due to the electron transfer from TiO2 nanosheets to the cocatalyst, Cu(OH)2, the severe recombination of photoinduced carriers can be greatly reduced, giving the impressive enhancement in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.