Recent advances in TiO2-based photocatalysts for efficient water splitting to hydrogen

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been widely used as a potential candidate for the production of green hydrogen using the artificial photosynthesis approach. However, the wide bandgap (∼3.3 eV) of anatase TiO2 makes it difficult to absorb a large fraction of the solar radiation reaching the Earth, thus providing a low photocatalytic activity. Anatase TiO2 absorbs only 4% of solar radiation, which can be improved by engineering its bandgap to enhance absorption in the visible region. In the literature, many strategies have been adopted to improve the photocatalytic activity of TiO2, such as metal and non-metal doping and heterojunctions. These techniques have shown incredible enhancement in visible light absorption and improved photocatalytic activity due to their ability to lower the bandgap of pure TiO2 semiconductors. This review highlights different techniques like doping, heterojunctions, acidic modification, creating oxygen vacancies, and temperature- and pressure-dependence, which have improved the photochemical response of TiO2 by improving charge-transfer efficiencies. Additionally, the charge-transfer mechanism and enhancement in the photochemical response of TiO2 is discussed in each portion separately.