TY - JOUR
T1 - Trilayer CdS/carbon nanofiber (CNF) mat/Pt-TiO2 composite structures for solar hydrogen production
T2 - Effects of CNF mat thickness
AU - Kim, Young Kwang
AU - Lim, Sang Kyoo
AU - Park, Hyunwoong
AU - Hoffmann, Michael R.
AU - Kim, Soonhyun
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2016/11/5
Y1 - 2016/11/5
N2 - Solar H2 production by photocatalytic water splitting is a promising technology that permits direct H2 production from the clean and abundant resources of water and solar light. We successfully fabricated trilayer heterostructures of CdS/carbon nanofiber (CNF) mat/Pt-deposited TiO2 (Pt-TiO2) for solar H2 production. The CNF mat was prepared by electrospinning and carbonization. CdS and Pt-TiO2 were coated on the front and back of the CNF mat by doctor blading. Under visible-light irradiation on the CdS side, the addition of the Pt-TiO2 coating improved the H2 production by a factor of 3.4. This suggests that the H2 production reaction could occur on Pt-TiO2, which is not active under visible irradiation; therefore, the CNF mat could act as an efficient photogenerated electron-transfer mediator from CdS to Pt-TiO2. The H2 production rates of the trilayer CdS/CNF/Pt-TiO2 heterostructures were strongly affected by the thickness of the CNF mat and the carbonization temperatures used in production, which affect the resistance of the CNF mat between the CdS and Pt-TiO2 sides. The results clearly demonstrated that the CNF acted as an efficient electron-transfer mediator as well as a support material.
AB - Solar H2 production by photocatalytic water splitting is a promising technology that permits direct H2 production from the clean and abundant resources of water and solar light. We successfully fabricated trilayer heterostructures of CdS/carbon nanofiber (CNF) mat/Pt-deposited TiO2 (Pt-TiO2) for solar H2 production. The CNF mat was prepared by electrospinning and carbonization. CdS and Pt-TiO2 were coated on the front and back of the CNF mat by doctor blading. Under visible-light irradiation on the CdS side, the addition of the Pt-TiO2 coating improved the H2 production by a factor of 3.4. This suggests that the H2 production reaction could occur on Pt-TiO2, which is not active under visible irradiation; therefore, the CNF mat could act as an efficient photogenerated electron-transfer mediator from CdS to Pt-TiO2. The H2 production rates of the trilayer CdS/CNF/Pt-TiO2 heterostructures were strongly affected by the thickness of the CNF mat and the carbonization temperatures used in production, which affect the resistance of the CNF mat between the CdS and Pt-TiO2 sides. The results clearly demonstrated that the CNF acted as an efficient electron-transfer mediator as well as a support material.
KW - Carbon nanomaterial
KW - Composite catalyst
KW - Electron-transfer mediation
KW - Photocatalytic water splitting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84974622149&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.apcatb.2016.05.045
DO - 10.1016/j.apcatb.2016.05.045
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84974622149
SN - 0926-3373
VL - 196
SP - 216
EP - 222
JO - Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
JF - Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
ER -
