Hydrogen photoproduction on TiO2-CuO artificial olive leaves

Olive leaves were used as biotemplates to synthesize diverse TiO2-CuO solids. A successful replication of trichomes and internal channels was evidenced by SEM, whereas a good dispersion Cu Ti atoms observed EDX. The systems consisted in pure anatase titania, with monoclinic CuO detected XRD Raman for large copper contents (over 15 wt%). XPS the existence strong interaction. Incorporation resulted an enhancement photocatalytic activity, hydrogen production being 84 times higher best system than bare titania. It seems that there is maximum surface content (close Cu/(Ti + Cu) mol % value 17) above which particles could promote electron-hole recombination and/or have shielding effect thus preventing light absorption smaller crystallite sizes better their reducibility catalytic performance under solar irradiation.