the effect of solvent of titanium precursor in the sol-gel process on the activity of tio2 nanoparticles for h2 production

A modied sol-gel process has been found to signicantly improve the photocatalytic activity of tio2 nanoparticle in the process of solar hydrogen production. the surface of tio2 nanoparticles were modied by the optimization of solvent of titanium precursor (acetic acid and/or ethanol) in the sol-gel method. a multi technique approach (sem, xrd, ftir, uv-drs and tga) was used to characterize the prepared tio2 nanoparticles. the photocatalytic hydrogen production was tested using a suspension of photocatalyst tio2 at 10 vol. % methanol under natural solar light. the produced hydrogen was subjected to gas chromatography with a continuous ow of n2 in the photoreactor system. it was found that the tio2 nanoparticles synthesized with acetic acid as the solvent of titanium precursor, tio2-aa, have a better photocatalytic activity for hydrogen production compared to nanoparticles synthesized with ethanol, tio2-ea. the obtained results showed that the better crystallinity, small size and proper surface properties of tio2-aa nanoparticles is due to higher photoactivity.