Enhancing hydrogen production activity and suppressing CO formation from photocatalytic biomass reforming on Pt/TiO2 by optimizing anatase–rutile phase structure

The photocatalytic activity in hydrogen production from biomass reforming can be significantly enhanced while keeping ultra-low CO concentration in produced H2 by tuning the anatase–rutile phase structures of Pt/TiO2 photocatalysts. Compared with Pt/P25, the overall photocatalytic activity for the photocatalyst with optimized anatase–rutile structure can be enhanced up to 3–5 times, and the CO concentration in hydrogen can be reduced from several thousands ppm to 5 ppm. It is proposed that the anatase–rutile phase structure can not only enhance the charge separation, consequently the activity, but also adjust the surface acid/base property which suppresses the CO formation.