Biomass Photoreforming for Hydrogen Production over Hierarchical 3DOM TiO2-Au-CdS

Photocatalytic hydrogen production is a promising route to the provision of sustainable and green energy. However, excess addition traditional electron donors as sacrificial agents consume photogenerated holes greatly reduces feasibility this approach for commercialization. Herein, considering abundant hydroxyl groups in cellulose, major component biomass, we adopted glucose (a unit cellulose), cellobiose structure cellulose) dissolving pulp pretreated photocatalytic over TiO2-Au-CdS material. The well-designed ternary possesses hierarchical three-dimensional ordered macroporous (3DOM) structure, which not only benefits light harvesting but can also facilitate mass diffusion boost reaction kinetics. As expected, fabricated photocatalyst exhibits considerable from (645.1 μmol·h−1·g−1), while rates gradually decrease with increased complexity (273.9 μmol·h−1·g−1) (79.7 μmol·h−1·g−1). Other gaseous components such CO CH4 are produced, indicating partial conversion biomass during photoreforming process. This work demonstrates by rational design.