Monolayer Ti3C2 Tx as an Effective Co-catalyst for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production over TiO2

Tongming Su; Zachary D. Hood; Michael Naguib; Lei Bai; Si Luo; Christopher M. Rouleau; Ilia N. Ivanov; Hongbing Ji; Zuzeng Qin; Zili Wu

doi:10.1021/acsaem.8b02268

Monolayer Ti₃C₂ T_x as an Effective Co-catalyst for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production over TiO₂

Tongming Su, Zachary D. Hood, Michael Naguib, Lei Bai, Si Luo, Christopher M. Rouleau, Ilia N. Ivanov, Hongbing Ji, Zuzeng Qin, Zili Wu

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

215 Scopus citations

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) represents a promising candidate for hydrogen production via photocatalysis. However, its large bandgap and fast charge recombination limits its efficiency. To overcome this limitation, we explored in this work two-dimensional titanium carbide MXene, Ti₃C₂T_x (T_x = O, OH, F), as feasible co-catalysts for hydrogen production with TiO₂ as the photocatalyst. We synthesized a series of Ti₃C₂T_x/TiO₂ composite photocatalysts with monolayer Ti₃C₂T_x as the co-catalyst to improve the separation of photoinduced electrons and holes. The physicochemical properties of the Ti₃C₂T_x/TiO₂ composites were investigated by a variety of characterization techniques, and the effect of the monolayer Ti₃C₂T_x on the photocatalytic performance of the Ti₃C₂T_x/TiO₂ composites is elucidated by comparison to the multilayer counterpart. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of the optimized monolayer Ti₃C₂T_x/TiO₂ composite is over 9 times higher than that of the pure TiO₂ and 2.5 times higher than the multilayer counterpart. The significantly enhanced activity is attributed to the superior electrical conductivity of monolayer Ti₃C₂T_x and charge-carrier separation at the MXene/TiO₂ interface. A mechanism of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over the Ti₃C₂T_x/TiO₂ system is proposed. This work demonstrates the potential of monolayer MXenes as effective co-catalysts for photocatalysis and further broadens the applications of the MXene family of two-dimensional materials.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	4640-4651
Number of pages	12
Journal	ACS Applied Energy Materials
Volume	2
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.8b02268
State	Published - Jul 22 2019

Funding

This research was supported and conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. T.M.S. acknowledges the support from China Scholarship Council. Z.D.H. gratefully acknowledges a Graduate Research Fellowship award from the National Science Foundation (No. DGE-1650044). L.B. acknowledges financial support from the National Science Foundation, through Supplemental Intern Funding No. 1511818. Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725, with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).

Funders	Funder number
DOE Office of Science
National Science Foundation	1511818
China Scholarship Council

Keywords

MXene
hydrogen evolution
monolayer titanium carbide
photocatalysis
titanium dioxide

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1021/acsaem.8b02268

Cite this

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title = "Monolayer Ti3C2 Tx as an Effective Co-catalyst for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production over TiO2 ",

abstract = "Titanium dioxide (TiO2) represents a promising candidate for hydrogen production via photocatalysis. However, its large bandgap and fast charge recombination limits its efficiency. To overcome this limitation, we explored in this work two-dimensional titanium carbide MXene, Ti3C2Tx (Tx = O, OH, F), as feasible co-catalysts for hydrogen production with TiO2 as the photocatalyst. We synthesized a series of Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composite photocatalysts with monolayer Ti3C2Tx as the co-catalyst to improve the separation of photoinduced electrons and holes. The physicochemical properties of the Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composites were investigated by a variety of characterization techniques, and the effect of the monolayer Ti3C2Tx on the photocatalytic performance of the Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composites is elucidated by comparison to the multilayer counterpart. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of the optimized monolayer Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composite is over 9 times higher than that of the pure TiO2 and 2.5 times higher than the multilayer counterpart. The significantly enhanced activity is attributed to the superior electrical conductivity of monolayer Ti3C2Tx and charge-carrier separation at the MXene/TiO2 interface. A mechanism of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over the Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 system is proposed. This work demonstrates the potential of monolayer MXenes as effective co-catalysts for photocatalysis and further broadens the applications of the MXene family of two-dimensional materials.",

keywords = "MXene, hydrogen evolution, monolayer titanium carbide, photocatalysis, titanium dioxide",

author = "Tongming Su and Hood, {Zachary D.} and Michael Naguib and Lei Bai and Si Luo and Rouleau, {Christopher M.} and Ivanov, {Ilia N.} and Hongbing Ji and Zuzeng Qin and Zili Wu",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 American Chemical Society.",

year = "2019",

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doi = "10.1021/acsaem.8b02268",

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T1 - Monolayer Ti3C2 Tx as an Effective Co-catalyst for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production over TiO2

AU - Su, Tongming

AU - Hood, Zachary D.

AU - Naguib, Michael

AU - Bai, Lei

AU - Luo, Si

AU - Rouleau, Christopher M.

AU - Ivanov, Ilia N.

AU - Ji, Hongbing

AU - Qin, Zuzeng

AU - Wu, Zili

PY - 2019/7/22

Y1 - 2019/7/22

N2 - Titanium dioxide (TiO2) represents a promising candidate for hydrogen production via photocatalysis. However, its large bandgap and fast charge recombination limits its efficiency. To overcome this limitation, we explored in this work two-dimensional titanium carbide MXene, Ti3C2Tx (Tx = O, OH, F), as feasible co-catalysts for hydrogen production with TiO2 as the photocatalyst. We synthesized a series of Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composite photocatalysts with monolayer Ti3C2Tx as the co-catalyst to improve the separation of photoinduced electrons and holes. The physicochemical properties of the Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composites were investigated by a variety of characterization techniques, and the effect of the monolayer Ti3C2Tx on the photocatalytic performance of the Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composites is elucidated by comparison to the multilayer counterpart. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of the optimized monolayer Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composite is over 9 times higher than that of the pure TiO2 and 2.5 times higher than the multilayer counterpart. The significantly enhanced activity is attributed to the superior electrical conductivity of monolayer Ti3C2Tx and charge-carrier separation at the MXene/TiO2 interface. A mechanism of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over the Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 system is proposed. This work demonstrates the potential of monolayer MXenes as effective co-catalysts for photocatalysis and further broadens the applications of the MXene family of two-dimensional materials.

AB - Titanium dioxide (TiO2) represents a promising candidate for hydrogen production via photocatalysis. However, its large bandgap and fast charge recombination limits its efficiency. To overcome this limitation, we explored in this work two-dimensional titanium carbide MXene, Ti3C2Tx (Tx = O, OH, F), as feasible co-catalysts for hydrogen production with TiO2 as the photocatalyst. We synthesized a series of Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composite photocatalysts with monolayer Ti3C2Tx as the co-catalyst to improve the separation of photoinduced electrons and holes. The physicochemical properties of the Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composites were investigated by a variety of characterization techniques, and the effect of the monolayer Ti3C2Tx on the photocatalytic performance of the Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composites is elucidated by comparison to the multilayer counterpart. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of the optimized monolayer Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 composite is over 9 times higher than that of the pure TiO2 and 2.5 times higher than the multilayer counterpart. The significantly enhanced activity is attributed to the superior electrical conductivity of monolayer Ti3C2Tx and charge-carrier separation at the MXene/TiO2 interface. A mechanism of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over the Ti3C2Tx/TiO2 system is proposed. This work demonstrates the potential of monolayer MXenes as effective co-catalysts for photocatalysis and further broadens the applications of the MXene family of two-dimensional materials.

KW - MXene

KW - hydrogen evolution

KW - monolayer titanium carbide

KW - photocatalysis

KW - titanium dioxide

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