Back to Search
Start Over
Ultrasensitive electrode-free and co-catalyst-free detection of nanomoles per hour hydrogen evolution for the discovery of new photocatalysts.
- Source :
- Review of Scientific Instruments; Feb2022, Vol. 93 Issue 2, p1-9, 9p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- High throughput theoretical methods are increasingly used to identify promising photocatalytic materials for hydrogen generation from water as a clean source of energy. While most promising water splitting candidates require co-catalyst loading and electrical biasing, computational costs to predict them a priori become large. It is, therefore, important to identify bare, bias-free semiconductor photocatalysts with small initial hydrogen production rates, often in the range of tens of nanomoles per hour, as these can become highly efficient with further co-catalyst loading and biasing. Here, we report a sensitive hydrogen detection system suitable for screening new photocatalysts. The hydrogen evolution rate of the prototypical rutile TiO<subscript>2</subscript> loaded with 0.3 wt. % Pt is detected to be 78.0 ± 0.8 µmol/h/0.04 g, comparable with the rates reported in the literature. In contrast, sensitivity to an ultralow evolution rate of 11.4 ± 0.3 nmol/h/0.04 g is demonstrated for bare polycrystalline TiO<subscript>2</subscript> without electrical bias. Two candidate photocatalysts, ZnFe<subscript>2</subscript>O<subscript>4</subscript> (18.1 ± 0.2 nmol/h/0.04 g) and Ca<subscript>2</subscript>PbO<subscript>4</subscript> (35.6 ± 0.5 nmol/h/0.04 g) without electrical bias or co-catalyst loading, are demonstrated to be potentially superior to bare TiO<subscript>2</subscript>. This work expands the techniques available for sensitive detection of photocatalytic processes toward much faster screening of new candidate photocatalytic materials in their bare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00346748
- Volume :
- 93
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Review of Scientific Instruments
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 155492990
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0077650