Hydrogen production from water using photocatalysts comprising metal oxides and graphene nanoparticles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016296909-A1
Application number	US-201415036502-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 3, 2014
Priority date	Dec 4, 2013
Publication date	Oct 13, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed is a photocatalyst, and methods for its use, that includes graphene nanostructures attached to the surface of a photoactive metal oxide semiconductor selected from SrTiO 3 or CeO 2 , wherein the photoactive metal oxide semiconductor is a microstructure or larger.

First claim

1 . A photocatalyst comprising a conductive material having graphene nanostructures attached to the surface of a photoactive metal oxide semiconductor selected from SrTiO 3 or CeO 2 , wherein the photoactive metal oxide semiconductor is a microstructure or larger.

2 . The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the graphene is graphene oxide.

3 . The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the graphene oxide is reduced graphene oxide.

4 . The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the photoactive metal oxide semiconductor is SrTiO 3 .

5 . The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the photoactive metal oxide semiconductor is CeO 2 .

6 . The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the photoactive metal oxide semiconductor is a particle.

7 . The photocatalyst of claim 1 , comprising less than 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 wt. % of the conductive material.

8 . The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the nanostructures are nanowires, nanoparticles, nanoclusters, or nanocrystals, or combinations thereof.

9 . The photocatalyst of claim 8 , wherein the nanoparticle is spherical or substantially spherical in shape.

10 . The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the conductive material does not cover more than 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, or 5% of the surface area of the photoactive metal oxide semiconductor.

11 . The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the graphene is attached to the surface of the photoactive metal oxide semiconductor via precipitation of the photoactive metal oxide semiconductor from an aqueous solution comprising the graphene.

12 . The photocatalyst of claim 1 , wherein the photocatalyst is capable of catalyzing the photocatalytic electrolysis of water.

13 . A water splitting system comprising:
a transparent container comprising the photocatalyst of claim 1 and water; and a light source for irradiating the aqueous solution.

14 . A method of converting H 2 O to H 2 and O 2 comprising irradiating an aqueous solution comprising the photocatalyst of claim 1 and water with UV irradiation, wherein the H 2 O is converted into H 2 and O 2 .

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the aqueous solution is prepared by addition of the photocatalyst to water.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the photocatalyst is heated to between 200° C. and 400° C. prior to addition of the photocatalyst to the water.

17 . The method of any claim 1 , wherein the aqueous solution comprises between 1 wt. % and 5 wt. % of the photocatalyst.

18 . The method of any claim 1 , wherein the hydrogen production rate is between 2×10 −7 and 3×10 −7 mol/g Catal min.

Assignees

• Sabic Global Technologies Bv

Inventors

• Saleh Moussa
• Wahab Ahmed Khaja
• Idriss Hicham
• Gambarotta Sandro

Classifications

• Y02E60/36

  Hydrogen production from non-carbon containing sources, e.g. by water electrolysis · CPC title

• B01J21/063 Primary

  Titanium; Oxides or hydroxides thereof · CPC title

• B01J21/18

  Carbon · CPC title

• B01J35/08

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01J19/123

  Ultraviolet light · CPC title