Photocatalytic hydrogen production from glycerol-water mixture over Pt-N-TiO2 nanotube photocatalyst

The effects of several modifications on TiO2 P25 in producing hydrogen from glycerol-water mixture have been investigated. Prior to further modification, TiO2 underwent hydrothermal treatment at 130 degrees C for several hours to obtain nanotube shape. TiO2 nanotubes (TiNT) was then doped with platinum (Pt) and nitrogen (N) by employing photo-deposition and impregnation method, respectively. SEM and XRD results showed that Pt-N-TiNT was successfully obtained as pure anatase crystal structure. The effects of glycerol content to photocatalytic activity of hydrogen production have also been studied, result in 50%v of glycerol as the optimum concentration correspond to the stoichiometric volume ratio of glycerol reforming. The results of photo-production test showed that TiNT (nanotube) could enhance hydrogen generation by two times compared with unmodified P25 (nanoparticle). Meanwhile, simultaneous modification of TiNT by Pt and N dopants (Pt-N-TiNT) lead to activity improvement up to 13 times compared with P25. The output of this study may contribute toward finding an alternative pathway to produce H-2 from renewable resources. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.