Methanol photo-reforming with water on pure titania for hydrogen production

Bowker, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5075-1089 and Jones, W. 2020. Methanol photo-reforming with water on pure titania for hydrogen production. Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 378 (2176) , 20200058. 10.1098/rsta.2020.0058

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (582kB)

Abstract

The behavior of titania for the photo-reforming of methanol with water at ambient temperature has been examined. It is shown that the reactivity is very poor, compared with metal-loaded catalysts at low methanol levels in solution, but the rate becomes much higher at high methanol levels, such that the difference from metal-loaded samples is much less. The optimum yield is with approximately a 1:1 methanol/water solution. The reaction also proceeds well in the gas phase. During all such catalysis the titania becomes blue, due to light absorption increasing across the range 400-800 nm. However, this does not result in visible range activity for the photo-reforming and is due to the reduction of the material in the presence of light and the formation of anion vacancies and Ti3+ centres. These anion vacancies are only very slowly re-oxidised in air on P25 titania, taking days to recover the original whiteness of the oxide. The performance of anatase, rutile and the mixed phase are compared.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Chemistry Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI)
Publisher:	Royal Society, The
ISSN:	1364-503X
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	24 June 2020
Date of Acceptance:	15 April 2020
Last Modified:	01 Dec 2024 11:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/132766

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item