Preparation of nanometer CuAl_2O_4/CuO and photocatalytic generation of H_2 in simulated sunlight

Nanometer structured CuAl2O4/CuO was synthetized using co-precipitation method.The effect of different calcination temperatures and amount of catalysts on the catalyst activities were studied using oxalic acid as sacrificial agent under 150W Xenon lamp irradiation.The morphology and structure were characterized using XRD,SEM and TG-DTA,showing that the CuAl2O4 is spinel type structure and its particle size is about 10 nm.The catalyst was also synthesized by solid phase,co-precipitation,and citric acid sol-gel methods,and studied under the same photocatalytic experimental conditions;the experimental results show that the catalyst synthesized by sol-gel method shows the best hydrogen production rate of 41mL/h,followed by that synthesized by co-precipitation method(34mL/h),and that synthesized by the solid phase method(25mL/h).