Operational conditions affecting hydrogen production via photo-reforming of organic compounds using TiO2-Au nanoparticles

Abstract

Several factors affect photocatalytic hydrogen productivity from the photo-reforming of organic compounds, which makes it difficult to optimize operational conditions in photoreactors. To prioritize them, we focused on the quantification of the effect of five factors on H₂ production. Photocatalytic experiments were run on 67 mL batch photoreactors under UV-LED lamps of 375 nm using a suspension of TiO₂-Au nanoparticles synthesized via a sol-gel approach. The analyzed factors were: (A) presence of gold as co-catalyst, (B) type of alcohol as electron donor, (C) intensity of UV-light, (D) electron donor concentration, and (E) nanoparticle concentration. A main and interaction effects analysis is presented with reduced fixed effect models for three responses: total H₂ generation, catalyst productivity and electron donor productivity. The presence of gold as a co-catalyst (A), the intensity of UV light (C) and their interaction (AC) were the factors with the highest effect. The best configuration that was studied allowed reaching a catalyst productivity of 2925 μmol∙g-¹∙h-¹.