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Operational Conditions Affecting Hydrogen Production by the Photoreforming of Organic Compounds using Titania Nanoparticles with Gold
Author(s) -
VarasConcha Felipe,
Guzmán Diego,
Isaacs Mauricio,
SáezNavarrete César
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
energy technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2194-4296
pISSN - 2194-4288
DOI - 10.1002/ente.201700546
Subject(s) - hydrogen production , photocatalysis , catalysis , nanoparticle , hydrogen , chemical engineering , materials science , electron donor , light intensity , colloidal gold , productivity , suspension (topology) , nanotechnology , photochemistry , chemistry , organic chemistry , optics , physics , mathematics , homotopy , pure mathematics , engineering , economics , macroeconomics
Abstract Several factors affect photocatalytic hydrogen productivity from the photoreforming of organic compounds, which makes it difficult to optimize operational conditions in photoreactors. To prioritize these factors, we focused on the quantification of the effect of five of them on hydrogen production. Photocatalytic experiments were performed on 67 mL batch photoreactors under UV‐LED lamps ( λ =375 nm) using a suspension of TiO 2 –Au nanoparticles synthesized by a sol–gel approach. The analyzed factors were: (A) presence of Au as a cocatalyst, (B) type of alcohol as the 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 hydrogen generation, catalyst productivity, and electron donor productivity. The presence of Au as a cocatalyst (A), the intensity of UV light (C), and their interaction (AC) were the factors with the highest effect. The best configuration allowed us to reach a catalyst productivity of 2925 μmolH2 g −1 h −1 .