Structurally controlled ZnO/TiO2 heterostructures as efficient photocatalysts for hydrogen generation from water without noble metals: The role of microporous amorphous/crystalline composite structure

A versatile synthetic method, which is based on a low-temperature hydrothermal technique, is developed for the fabrication of a microporous ZnO/TiO 2 composite catalyst with different structures (e.g., amorphous , amorphous/crystalline and crystalline). In particular, a novel microporous ZnO/TiO 2 composite with amorphous/crystalline structure is obtained with a 3/1 M ratio of Ti/Zn. This novel ZnO/TiO 2 composite heterostructure not only has a large specific surface area (311.9 m 2  g −1 ) but also exhibits outstanding performance during solar water splitting reactions to generate hydrogen without a noble metal co-catalyst. Based on our in-depth mechanistic analysis, the synergistic effect between the amorphous ZnO and crystalline TiO 2 is responsible for the enhanced performance of this material.