Design, preparation and characterization of ruthenium dioxide/titanium dioxide catalytic surfaces active in photooxidation of water

This paper describes the preparation and optimization of a catalyst consisting of RuO2.xH2O obtained by hydrolysis of RuCl3 on TiO2 powder. The catalyst is active in dark and light-induced sacrificial systems mediating O2 evolution in solution. The influence of pH, temperature, concentration, and other experimental variables affecting the preparation of the catalyst is described. The first characterization of RuO2.xH2O/TiO2 powdered surfaces by electron microscopy (EM), surface area measurements (BET), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), optical acoustic spectroscopy (OAS), and powder conductivity measurements is presented. By EM, it is shown that the active catalytic species consists of islands of RuO2.xH2O, present as agglomerates of 10-20 nm interspersed with TiO2 particles of 200-nm diameter.