Preparation, Characterization, and Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Activity of Y2Cu2O5-Based Compounds under Simulated Sunlight Irradiation

• Main Authors: Li Zhang, Jianhui Yan, Minjie Zhou, Younian Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2013-01-01
• Series: Journal of Nanomaterials
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/852139

Y2Cu2O5 photocatalyst was successfully prepared via solid state reaction and further combined with TiO2 by a sol-gel method and a solid phase method, respectively. For comparison, Pt particles were loaded to prepare Pt-Y2Cu2O5 via a hydrogen reduction method. All the samples were characterized by thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Photocatalytic H2 evolution activities of the as-obtained samples were evaluated from aqueous oxalic acid solution under simulated sunlight irradiation. The effects of photocatalyst concentration, TiO2 content, and composite method on the H2 evolution activities of the as-obtained photocatalysts were investigated. The results show that, when the concentration of photocatalyst is 0.8 g L−1, the TiO2-Y2Cu2O5 composite photocatalyst prepared by a sol-gel method exhibits the optimized photocatalytic activity, and the H2 production rate is 4.35 mmol h−1g−1 with 30 wt.% content of TiO2.