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

SUMMARY 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°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 H2 from renewable resources. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.