Titania Composites with 2 D Transition Metal Carbides as Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production under Visible-Light Irradiation

Hui Wang, Rui Peng, Zachary D. Hood, Michael Naguib, Shiba P. Adhikari, Zili Wu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

275 Scopus citations

Abstract

MXenes, a family of two-dimensional transition-metal carbides, were successfully demonstrated as co-catalysts with rutile TiO2 for visible-light-induced solar hydrogen production from water splitting. The physicochemical properties of Ti3 C2 Tx MXene coupled with TiO2 were investigated by a variety of characterization techniques. The effect of the Ti3 C2 Tx loading on the photocatalytic performance of the TiO2 /Ti3 C2 Tx composites was elucidated. With an optimized Ti3 C2 Tx content of 5 wt %, the TiO2 /Ti3 C2 Tx composite shows a 400 % enhancement in the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction compared with that of pure rutile TiO2 . We also expanded our exploration to other MXenes (Nb2 CTx and Ti2 CTx ) as co-catalysts coupled with TiO2 , and these materials also exhibited enhanced hydrogen production. These results manifest the generality of MXenes as effective co-catalysts for solar hydrogen production.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1490-1497
Number of pages8
JournalChemSusChem
Volume9
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 22 2016

Keywords

  • carbides
  • hydrogen
  • photochemistry
  • titanium
  • water splitting

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