Performance of platinized TiO 2 on organic dye degradation coupled with H 2 production

A platinum loaded TiO2 P25 catalyst was prepared by photodeposition procedure. Process related control mechanisms as stirring rate and UV intensity show high sensitivity with respect to noble metal deposition. The presence of platinum shows consistent minor improvements in photoactivity with di erent impacts for various organic compounds. Degradation is determined by measuring the absorption spectrum using UV spectrocscopy. Hydrogen evolution measurements were done with a gas chromatograph in combination with a thermal conductivity detector. The catalytic e ect of platinum shows strong improvement in hydrogen production. In the absence of sacri cial agents electron-hole recombination dominates having a detrimental e ect on the reduction of protons forming hydrogen. The combination of Methanol and formic acid (FA) with an organic contaminant (methyl orange (MO) /acid orange 7 (AO)) showed a big improvement in hydrogen production. The addition of organic compounds results in e ects which depend on the pH of the solution. In the case of MO, acidic environments at pH levels of 2 result in nearly direct decolorization with an obvious mitigation of hydrogen production. At pH levels of 5 an improvement of hydrogen production can be observed which exceeds the production rate of systems without organic compounds which was demonstrated by using MO and methanol. For that case complete degradation was reach after approximately 25 minutes. It was successfully shown that degradation of pollutants in waste water can be coupled with hydrogen production with positive e ect for one of the processes based on the pH of the system.