A novel approach for enhancing hydrogen production from bio-glycerol photoreforming by improving colloidal dispersion stability

In photocatalytic systems, TiO2 based particles in suspensions tend to aggregate spontaneously, resulting in low efficiency for light utilization and photocatalytic activity. In this study, various TiO2 nanoparticles with different shapes were synthesized and characterized via various analysis. In atmosphere and aqueous environment, the nanoparticles demonstrated different properties in the nature of the agglomerations. Photocatalytic performances of the as-prepared samples were confirmed to be strongly influenced by the dispersion stabilities with TiO2 nanotube exhibited higher colloidal dispersion stability and photocatalytic activity. Mixing binary TiO2 photocatalysts with different shapes as a simple approach was firstly proposed for enhancing photoreforming hydrogen production from bio-glycerol aqueous solution. At a specific mixing ratio, the mixed suspension of TiO2 nanosphere and nanosheet retained excellent colloidal dispersion stability, and photocatalytic hydrogen production was significantly promoted with its maximum H-2 production amount as 2.1-2.9 times high as that of TNP and TNS, respectively. This strategy of enhancing colloidal dispersion stability may provide new ideas for the design of efficient and energy-saving photocatalytic system. (c) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.