TiO-Au composite nanofibers for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

TiO-based materials for photocatalytic hydrogen (H) evolution have attracted much interest as a renewable approach for clean energy applications. TiO-Au composite nanofibers (NFs) with an average fiber diameter of ∼160 nm have been fabricated by electrospinning combined with calcination treatment. reduced gold nanoparticles (NPs) with uniform size (∼10 nm) are found to disperse homogenously in the TiO NF matrix. The TiO-Au composite NFs catalyst can significantly enhance the photocatalytic H generation with an extremely high rate of 12 440 μmol g h, corresponding to an adequate apparent quantum yield of 5.11% at 400 nm, which is 25 times and 10 times those of P25 (584 μmol g h) and pure TiO NFs (1254 μmol g h), respectively. Furthermore, detailed studies indicate that the H evolution efficiency of the TiO-Au composite NF catalyst is highly dependent on the gold content. This work provides a strategy to develop highly efficient catalysts for H evolution.