Noble metal Au-modified TiO2 hollow spheres efficiently drive photocatalytic hydrogen production

The swift combination of electrons and holes produced by light exposure restricts the versatility of titanium TiO 2 . Enhancing the separation of photo-induced charge carriers while maximizing the density of active sites on the surface. In this work, the noble metal Au and the modified TiO 2 hollow sphere structure are used to improve the hydrogen production rate by regulating the interaction between noble metal-TiO 2 and increasing the metal-TiO 2 interfacial active sites. According to the study, the optimal performance is achieved at a gold concentration of 0.5 wt%, the hydrogen production rate of 0.5Au@TiO 2 was as high as 4.73 mmol · g -1 · h -1 , which was roughly 36.38 times higher than the monolithic hollow-shell structure's (0.13 mmol · g -1 · h -1 ), providing a new option for the preparation of photocatalysts with efficient electron-hole separation.