Ordered Mesoporous TiO2/ZnO Material for Hydrogen Production

Ordered mesoporous Zr-doped TiO₂/ZnO material is currently being investigated for band gap tuning and higher loadings of photo-sensitizer. Utilization of such mesoporous materials thereby offers an opportunity to sensitize semiconductor with higher sensitizer loadings leading to effective charge separation and higher photo-energy conversion. It may be possible to achieve the band gap tuning as well as higher sensitizer loadings through the formation of Zr-doped mesoporous TiO₂/ZnO networks by the sol gel method. Ordered mesoporous Zr-doped TiO₂/ZnO materials as thin-film and powder were synthesized using hexadecylamine (HDA) as the surfactant, titanium ethoxide and ZnCl₂ precursors. The gels were aged and calcined for 5 hours in nitrogen environment at 500 ^oC. H₂ generation experiments were performed using Zr-doped TiO₂/ZnO powder in quartz reactor cell (7 ml) containing water and NaI mixture. The cell was illuminated with 500 W Xe lamp with different power density. The gas samples were withdrawn periodically and analyzed using GC provided with thermal conductivity detector. SEM/TEM analysis of mesoporous TiO₂/ZnO material and H₂ generation from photocatalytic water-splitting reaction will be presented.