TITLE:
Effect of TiO2 Crystallite Diameter on Photocatalytic Water Splitting Rate
AUTHORS:
Haruna Banno, Ben Kariya, Norifumi Isu, Muneaki Ogawa, Saeko Miwa, Keisuke Sawada, Junki Tsuge, Shoichiro Imaizumi, Hidenori Kato, Kyota Tokutake, Seiichi Deguchi
KEYWORDS:
Photocatalytic Water Splitting, TiO2 Crystallite Diameter, Scherrer Size, X-Ray Diffraction, Critical Water Anneal
JOURNAL NAME:
Green and Sustainable Chemistry,
Vol.4 No.2,
May
16,
2014
ABSTRACT: The effect of (Pt-loaded)TiO2 crystallite diameter (i.e. Scherrer size) on the
photocatalytic water splitting rate was investigated. (Pt-loaded)TiO2 powders with a wide range of crystallite diameters from about 16 to 45 nm with
a blank region between about 23 and 41 nm were prepared by various annealing
processes from an identical TiO2 powder. Water splitting experiments
with these powders were carried out with methanol as an oxidizing sacrificial
agent. It was found that the photocatalytic water splitting rate was
sensitively affected by the crystallite diameter of the (Pt-loaded)TiO2 powder. More concretely, similar steep improvements of photocatalytic water
splitting rates from around 15 and a little over 2 to about 30 μmol·m-2hr-1were obtained in the two (Pt-loaded)TiO2 crystallite
diameters ranging from 16 to 23 and from 41 to 45 nm, respectively.