Photocatalytic hydrogen production from butanol reforming using Ag2O/TiO2 composite catalysts: Effects of AgxO and TiO2 precursors on the activity of the composite catalysts

The AgxO/TiO2 composite catalysts with different silver and TiO2 precursors were prepared viasol-gel and subsequet incipient wet impregnation method. The samples were characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-Ray diffractometer (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV–vis/DRS. The activity of the samples was tested for photocatalytic hydrogen production from butanol reforming using a solar simulator. The AgxO/TiO2 catalyst prepared with silver nitrate precursor displayed higher activity compared to the other prepared catalysts using different silver precursor. Furthermore, the AgxO/TiO2 prepared with a TTIP precursor displayed the highest activity compared to the P25 sample and the other sample. The excellent activity was attributed to the uniform dispersion of AgxO nanoparticles on the surface of TiO2 particles; efficient light-harvesting, suppression of electron/hole recombination, and the crystallinity of the prepared sample.