H2O2-assisted preparation of microspherical C60–TiO2 photocatalyst and its hydrogen evolution mechanism

Photocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen is one of the promising methods to deal with energy shortage and environmental crisis. In this paper, n-type H₂O₂/C₆₀–TiO₂ photo-catalysts with excellent hydrogen production performance were prepared by simple hydrothermal method. The prepared catalysts were characterized by polycrystalline XRD, TEM, UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, etc. The results showed that H₂O₂ can promote the formation of microspherical catalyst; meanwhile, fullerene can broaden the light response range, increase the separation ability of photogenerated carriers and catalyze the formation of molecular H₂ due to the formed superoxide radical. The water splitting experiments showed that the hydrogen evolution rate of H₂O₂/C₆₀–TiO₂ is up to 41.6 mmol?g^?1h^?1, 9.7 times of pure TiO₂. These results have important reference significance for the development of new photocatalysts for water splitting to produce hydrogen.