Hydrogen generation under visible light using nitrogen doped titania anodes

Hydrogen is among several energy sources that will be needed to replace the quickly diminishing fossil fuels. Free hydrogen is not available naturally on earth and the current processes require a fossil fuel, methane, to generate hydrogen. Electrochemical splitting of water on titania proposed by Fujishima suffers from low efficiency. The efficiency could be enhanced if full sun spectrum can be utilized. Using pulsed laser deposition technique we synthesized nitrogen doped titanium dioxide (TiO2−xNx) thin films with improved visible light sensitivity. The photoactivity was found to be N concentration dependent. Hydrogen evolution was observed under visible light irradiation (wavelength>390 nm) without the presence of any organic electron donor.