Metal/Carbon/TiO2 hybrid nanomaterialsfor photocatalytic water splitting

Hydrogen has been acknowledged as a promising alternative form of storable and clean energy for the future. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the development of new methods to generate hydrogen from renewable and sustainable resources to avoid the production of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel consumption. Photo-catalytic water splitting using solar energy for hydrogen production offers a promising option to produce hydrogen. Because of this, the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy in the form of hydrogen has become a challenging and attractive subject. Hydrogen production from solar water-splitting processes generally can be categorised into thermochemical water splitting, photo-biological water splitting and photocatalytic water splitting.
Sunlight and water are the most abundant, renewable and natural energy resources on Earth. Their conversion to hydrogen has been described as an ideal solution to counter the depletion of fossil fuels. Hydrogen production via water splitting with TiO2 as the photo-catalyst was first reported in 1972. The concept of water decomposition was first demonstrated by Fujishima and Honda using a photo-electrochemical cell. Photocatalytic water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen using semiconductor catalysts is an effective method for converting solar energy or sunlight into clean and renewable hydrogen fuel.