Photocatalytically-driven H2 production over Cu/TiO2 catalysts decorated with multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

In this study, we assessed the effect of the incorporation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) on a TiO2 support containing different active metals to obtain Metal/TiO2-MWCNT photocatalytic systems. The materials prepared in this work were characterized by ICP-OES, TEM, EDX, XRD, PL, UV–vis, and nitrogen physisorption techniques. Among those investigated metals, Cu was shown to be the most promising for the present application. The assessment of the photocatalytic performance of Cu/TiO2-MWCNT with various Cu contents revealed that the catalytic activity depends on the Cu loading and the photocatalyst with 1 wt.% of Cu displayed the best performance among investigated. The incorporation of MWCNT in the support enhanced the photocatalytic activity towards the production of H2 under visible and UV–vis light irradiation at room temperature.