Abstract
Photocatalytic H-2 production has emerged as one of the most clean and promising renewable energy sources. In spite of the efforts to obtain efficient photocatalysts able to produce H-2 from Sun light and water, there is still the need to prepare cheaper and environmental friendlier photocatalysts. Phosphate based materials could be good candidates to fulfill these requirements. In this manuscript we have prepared a set of mixed Ti3+/Ti4+ valence, open-framework titanium phosphates (of-TiPO4) and mixed titanium oxide/phosphate derivatives (cr-TiP), correlating their structure and composition with the photocatalytic activity for H-2 production. We determined that mixed titanium oxide/phosphate crystalline phases produced enhanced H-2 evolution under Sun simulated light irradiation than mixed Ti3+/Ti4+ valence, open-framework titanium phosphates and titanium oxide phases. (C) 2016 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.