Enhancing hydrogen production activity and suppressing CO formation from photocatalytic biomass reforming on Pt/TiO2 by optimizing anatase-rutile phase structure

The photocatalytic activity in hydrogen production from biomass reforming can be significantly enhanced while keeping ultra-low CO concentration in produced H-2 by tuning the anatase-rutile phase structures of Pt/TiO2 photocatalysts. Compared with Pt/P25, the overall photocatalytic activity for the photocatalyst with optimized anatase-rutile structure can be enhanced up to 3-5 times, and the CO concentration in hydrogen can be reduced from several thousands ppm to 5 ppm. It is proposed that the anatase-rutile phase structure can not only enhance the charge separation, consequently the activity, but also adjust the surface acid/base property which suppresses the CO formation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.