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 TiO2 films decorated with Ag nanoparticles are synthesized by a rapid, simple, and inexpensive method. They are used to cleave water to produce H2 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.