Fabrication of a Suitable Visible Light Driven Photocatalyst for Sustainable Production of Hydrogen from Water Splitting

Abstract

Excessive use of fossil fuels has caused a lot of environmental damage so they must be replaced with sustainable energy resources. Hydrogen has clean and renewable properties so it can be used as a sustainable energy resource. Photocatalytic water splitting is an efficient way of producing hydrogen but it requires an efficient photocatalyst having high photochemical stability, efficient charge separation capability, good light harvesting properties and suitable band gap. Tungsten oxide has suitable properties for photocatalytic water splitting but it suffers from recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. Herein, different composites of tungsten with transition metal borides and oxides of copper and nickel have been successfully synthesized by precipitation method. FTIR studies, XRD analysis and SEM of the prepared composites, WO3-NiCoB, WO3-CuO-NiO, WO3-NiB and WO3-CuO-NiB have been done for detection of functional group, investigation of crystalline and structural properties, and study of the surface morphology of prepared composites. The photocatalytic activity of WO3, WO3-CuO-NiO and WO3-NiCoB has measured by photodegradation of AO-II. The results of activity showed that WO3-NiCoB worked better in photodegradation of AO-II in comparison to its other counterparts, WO3 and WO3-CuO-NiO.