Abstract
The exploration of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from solar water splitting under influence of sacrificial agents and proton sources has given us interesting ideas on related challenges. In this paper, we have studied the superior effect of methanol and aniline hydrochloride on photocatalytic hydrogen evolution by cactus-type bpydc@Fe2O3/TiO2 hybrid nanomaterials from solar water splitting. The bandgap of TiO2 has been tuned by the composite formation using organic bpydc and inorganic Fe2O3 nanomaterials. The studied heterojunction significantly suppresses the photogenerated charge recombination rate has been proved by the photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). The addition of methanol remarkably enhances the hydrogen evolution rate which serves as a sacrificial agent. The effect of proton sources on photocatalytic performance has been studied in detail. In the optimized system, the addition of aniline hydrochloride as a proton source has shown the highest rate of hydrogen generation (30.4 mL/h). This fundamental study along with the proposed mechanism based on several influences on the production of hydrogen from solar water splitting may open up new insights into the architectural design of photocatalysts for effective solar energy conversion. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.