Facile Adsorption-Dry Process to Incorporate Cu Into TiO2 Nanotube for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Cu species was introduced into TiO2 nanotube prepared by hydrothermal method via a facile adsorption-dry process. The fabricated sample exhibited excellent H-2 generation activity (76.3 mmol h(-1) g(catalyst)(-1)), which was higher than most of the reported Cu incorporated TiO2 samples, even superior to some Pt/Pd/Au/Ni incorporated TiO2. Compared to wet impregnation and in-situ photo-deposition methods, the facile adsorption-dry process was much simpler but more efficient to introduce Cu species into TiO2 for H-2 production. To fully understand the adsorption-dry process, characterizations of the samples were carried out by high-resolution transmission electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, BET surface area analysis, UV-visible spectrophotometer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that the facile adsorption-dry process could well maintain the morphology of TiO2 support, for instance, 1-D tubular structure and large BET surface area of TiO2 nanotube; moreover, the introduced Cu species was highly dispersed and intensively bonded with TiO2. All of these contributed to the high H-2 generation activity.