Photoreforming of organics for H2 production in the presence of Nb2O5 or TiO2 - carbon photocatalysts

Abstract

The conversion of solar energy into other energy vectors is a promising approach to address the challenges of global sustainability. In this framework heterogeneous photocatalysis can be useful to obtain hydrogen from solutions of biomass derivatives. Photoreforming is a process that exploits the redox capacity of photocatalysts upon illumination to simultaneously obtain the reduction of H+ to hydrogen gas and the oxidation of organic compounds. Therefore, the photocatalytic hydrogen production with simultaneous organic oxidation to obtain higher added value products or to oxidise pollutants has gained increasing attention [1,2]. In this work both bare Nb2O5 and TiO2 as well as their composites with graphene (G) and graphene oxide (GO) have been prepared, physico-chemically characterized and tested as photocatalysts for the photo-reforming of aqueous solutions of ethanol, glycerol and microplastics as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polylactic acid (PLA) in the absence and in the presence of Pt corresponding to 1% Pt w/w relative to the total mass of catalyst.