Photoelectrochemical hydrogen production from water/methanol decomposition using Ag/TiO₂ nanocomposite thin films

Though less frequently studied for solar-hydrogen production, films are more convenient to use than powders and can be easily recycled. Anatase TiO ₂ films decorated with Ag nanoparticles are synthesized by a rapid, simple, and inexpensive method. They are used to cleave water to produce H ₂ under UV light in the presence of methanol as a hole scavenger. A simple and sensitive method is established here to monitor the time course of hydrogen production for ultralow amounts of TiO₂. The average hydrogen production rate of Ag/TiO₂ anatase films is 147.9 ± 35.5 μmol/h/g. Without silver, it decreases dramatically to 4.65 ± 0.39 μmol/h/g for anatase TiO₂ films and to 0.46 ± 0.66 μmol/h/g for amorphous TiO₂ films fabricated at room temperature. Our method can be used as a high through-put screening process in search of high efficiency heterogeneous photocatalysts for solar-hydrogen production from water-splitting.