Photothermal synergistic catalysis for enhancing hydrogen production activity

doi:10.1016/S1872-2067(26)64953-4

Abstract

Abstract:

Photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production is regarded as an effective approach to address the energy crisis. Despite its rapid development, challenges such as low overall solar energy utilization efficiency persist, remaining far from meeting industrialization requirements. To overcome these limitations, we developed a highly active and cost-effective photothermal synergistic catalytic system by immobilizing a weakly hydrophobic mesoporous brookite TiO₂ photocatalyst on carbonized wood. Through gas-solid interface reconstruction (optimizing the traditional gas-liquid-solid three-phase system into a gas-solid configuration) and catalytic interface optimization (performing weak hydrophobic modification), the system facilitates more favorable water adsorption and efficient H₂ desorption. Meanwhile, the elevated reaction temperature accelerates kinetics, providing both thermodynamic and kinetic advantages. This system achieves an exceptional H₂ evolution rate of 11.98 μmol/(cm²·h) in pure water and 25.82 μmol/(cm²·h) in X-3B wastewater-surpassing state-of-the-art substrate-supported photothermal systems by 8-9 times in pure water splitting and outperforming non-substrate photothermal wastewater systems by 400-fold. Notably, this process enables simultaneous high-efficiency H₂ production and complete pollutant mineralization, offering a dual-benefit solution for sustainable energy and environmental remediation. These findings demonstrate the system’s potential for scalable industrial hydrogen production, bridging the gap between laboratory-scale research and practical applications.

Key words: Photothermal synergistic, PTFE-PB-240-MW, H₂, Gas-solid system, X-3B wastewater

Xinyi Zhang, Kewen Hu, Shuang Cao, Lingyu Piao. Photothermal synergistic catalysis for enhancing hydrogen production activity[J]. Chinese Journal of Catalysis, 2026, 84: 106-116.

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URL: https://www.cjcatal.com/EN/10.1016/S1872-2067(26)64953-4

https://www.cjcatal.com/EN/Y2026/V84/I5/106

Figures/Tables 5

Fig. 1. (a) The UV-Vis absorption spectra NW, 240-MW, PB and PB-240-MW. (b) H2 production performance comparison after loading various TiO2 photocatalysts on the 240-MW substrate. (c) The photocurrent I-t curves the PB, 240-MW, and PB-240-MW. (d) H2 production rate of PTFE-PB-240-MW after treating PB photocatalyst with various concentrations of PTFE.

Fig. 2. In-situ EPR spectra of DMPO-trapped ?OH (a) and BMPO-trapped O?- (b) of the PB and PTFE-PB photocatalyst, respectively. (c) Adsorption energy of the photocatalytic reaction in the gas-liquid-solid system (25 °C) and the gas-solid system (100 °C) with different temperatures over the PTFE-PB-240-MW. (d) H2 adsorption-desorption curves of PTFE-PB-240-MW at different temperatures. Gas adsorption-desorption test on PTFE-PB-240-MW coated electrode at 1 V under temperatures of 25 °C (e) and 100 °C (f). The experiments were conducted in the indicated order, where after filling the reaction system with supersaturated H2, vacuum pumping was rapidly performed, and the current density variations were measured.

Fig. 3. (a) The yield of H2 evolution and the degradation efficiencies of PTFE-PB, CA, P25 and PR on the 240-MW substrate in X-3B wastewater. (b) The degradation efficiencies of PTFE-PB-240-MW, PTFE-PB, 240-MW in X-3B wastewater and pure X-3B under irradiation. (c) TOC removals efficiency when the degradation efficiencies of PTFE-PB-240-MW, PTFE-PB, and 240-MW reach their maxima in X-3B wastewater and pure X-3B after 1 h of irradiation. (d) Trapping experiments of active oxidation species during the progress of X-3B degradation with simultaneous H2 production of 240-MW, PTFE-PB, and PTFE-PB-240-MW. The reaction rate constant (e) and degradation rate (f) of photodegradation of X-3B by PTFE-PB-240-MW at different temperatures.

Fig. 4. (a) Continuous stability of H2 production by PTFE-PB-240-MW in X-3B wastewater. (b) Stability of H2 production in X-3B wastewater after regeneration of deactivated PTFE-PB-240-MW system.

Fig. 5. (a) Schematic diagram of the mechanism for H2 production from wastewater through photothermal synergism. (b) Comparison of the H2 evolution rates of different photothermal catalytic systems reported.

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