The effect of solvent of titanium precursor in the sol-gel process on the activity of TiO2 nanoparticles for H2 production

A modified sol-gel process has been found to significantly improve the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanoparticle in the process of solar hydrogen production. The surface of TiO2 nanoparticles were modified by the optimization of solvent of titanium precursor (acetic acid and/or ethanol) in the sol-gel method. A multi technique approach (SEM, XRD, FTIR, UV-DRS and TGA) was used to characterize the prepared TiO2 nanoparticles. The photocatalytic hydrogen production was tested using a suspension of photocatalyst TiO2 at 10 vol. % methanol under natural solar light. The produced hydrogen was subjected to gas chromatography with a continuous flow of N2 in the photoreactor system. It was found that the TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized with acetic acid as the solvent of titanium precursor, TiO2-AA, have a better photocatalytic activity for hydrogen production compared to nanoparticles synthesized with ethanol, TiO2-EA. The obtained results showed that the better crystallinity, small size and proper surface properties of TiO2-AA nanoparticles is due to higher photoactivity.