Calcined Xerogels of C/TiO2 Nanostructures for Solar-Driven Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production.

The solar-driven water splitting for the production of renewable green hydrogen fundamentally relies on the exploration of efficient photocatalysts. Nanostructured TiO2 is widely recognized as a promising material for photocatalysis, yet it remains hindered by inadequate light harvesting and fast photogenerated carrier recombination. Herein, calcined C/TiO2 xerogels with yolk-shell and core-shell nanostructures (denoted as YS-C/TiO2 and CS-C/TiO2) were designed and fabricated via a typical sol-gel-calcination assisted approach. Thanks to the encapsulation of carbon nanospheres into TiO2, it effectively enhances light absorption, improves carrier separation, and lessens carrier recombination, making the well-designed YS-C/TiO2 composite display a remarkable hydrogen evolution rate of 975 µmol g-1 h-1 under simulated solar light irradiation and without the use of any co-catalyst, which is approximately 21.7 times that of the commercial TiO2. The work provides an efficacious design concept in developing nanostructured TiO2-based photocatalysts and in boosting broad photocatalytic applications.