Synergistic Effect of Pd Co-Catalyst and rGO–TiO2 Hybrid Support for Enhanced Photoreforming of Oxygenates

Photoreforming biomass-derived waste such as glycerol into hydrogen fuel is a renewable generation technology that has the potential to become important due unavoidable CO2 production during methane steam reforming. Despite tremendous efforts, challenge of developing highly active photocatalysts at low cost still remains elusive. Here, we developed novel photocatalyst with hybrid support comprising reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and TiO2 nanorods (TNR). rGO in not only performed an excellent scavenger electrons from semiconductor conduction band its suitable electrochemical potential, but also acted electron transport highway metal co-catalyst, which otherwise possible by simply increasing loading shadowing effect. A series supports different TNR ratios were prepared deposition method. Pd nanoparticles deposited over through chemical reduction Pd/rGO-TNRs containing 4 wt.% contents 1 nominal demonstrated activity ~41 mmols h−1g−1, 40 times greater than benchmark Au/TiO2 pristine P25. The findings this works provide new strategy optimizing charge extraction TiO2, remained impossible fixed tradeoff between detrimental