1. Evaluation of the anatase/rutile phase composition influence on the photocatalytic performances of mesoporous TiO2 powders
- Author
-
Stefano Enzo, Sebastiano Garroni, Nina Senes, Maria Itria Pilo, Elisabetta Masolo, Eva Pellicer, Maria Dolors Baró, and Gabriele Mulas
- Subjects
Anatase ,Materials science ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,Energy Engineering and Power Technology ,Mineralogy ,Condensed Matter Physics ,Microstructure ,Crystallinity ,Fuel Technology ,Chemical engineering ,Rutile ,Specific surface area ,Photocatalysis ,Texture (crystalline) ,Mesoporous material - Abstract
We investigated the influence of the microstructure, texture and the relative amount of anatase and rutile phases on the photoelectrocatalytic H 2 evolution over mesoporous TiO 2 (m-TiO 2 ). This study was carried out by means of ex-situ powder X-ray diffraction (XRPD), N 2 physisorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and photoelectrolysis measurements. The synthesis of nanocrystalline TiO 2 powders with different anatase/rutile weight ratios was successfully approached by evaporation-induced self assembly (EISA) method simply varying the volume amount of TiCl 4 and Ti(OBu) 4 (acid–base pair) as metal precursors. In particular, m-TiO 2 with anatase/rutile weight ratios similar to commercial TiO 2 (P25) was obtained. The microstructure, texture and photocatalytic properties toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) of the as-synthesized TiO 2 were compared with commercial P25. Interestingly, the m-TiO 2 with a high surface area of 196 m 2 /g, uniform pore size and 87/13 anatase/rutile weight ratio, showed a significant increase in the photoactivity with respect to the powders richer in either anatase or rutile phases. Furthermore, it was claimed that the crystallinity and specific surface area play a key role on the photocatalytic activity of the synthesized m-TiO 2 samples.
- Published
- 2015