Tailoring surface nanotube properties with copper nanoparticles for hydrogen production performance

Abstract The photocatalytic activity of copper photocatalysts is investigated in the water splitting reaction by using ethanol as a scavenging agent in order to study the process of the hydrogen production. The addition of copper photocatalysts was prepared by the practical photo-deposition method on titanate nanotubes (TNT). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) revealed the presence of Cu2O and CuO components were dominant in the TNT-Cu photocatalysts treated at 100 °C, the TNT-Cu with 1% wt. photocatalyst were shifted to lower binding energies ascribed to Ti3+, compared to TNT bare. The maximum rate of hydrogen production reached by the TNT-Cu with 1%.wt photocatalyst, likewise TNT-Cu with 1% wt. photocatalyst exhibit three cycles of reaction with no deactivation, after each cycle the H2 production was 193 µmolg−1·h−1.