Abstract
Methanol can be reformed with water, at ambient temperature, using photocatalysis, and this reaction represents a possible low energy, more sustainable pathway to hydrogen production than (for instance) steam reforming. The requirements for the catalysts are rather strict since titania itself is almost inactive for anaerobic photocatalysis, whereas the addition of a very limited range of metals to the surface renders it active. Surprisingly, this includes gold, which shows one of the highest reactivities for hydrogen production. The mechanism is proposed to involve the methoxy and formate intermediates, the latter being implicated in the route to CO2 and hydrogen production. One oxygen atom is supplied from the titania support, which is replaced in the catalytic cycle by oxygen from water. The threshold for the excitation is that for bandgap excitation into the titania conduction band, which stores the energy for reactivation, and this is mediated by electrophilic oxygen.
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Michael Bowker is Director of the Wolfson Nanoscience Laboratory in the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University and heads the Heterogeneous Catalysis and Surface Science Group. His research group works in the fields of nanoscience, surface science and catalysis. He previously worked in academic and industrial positions. Philip Davies is a Senior Lecturer and is mainly involved in surface science research. Jane Greaves carried out a PhD in photocatalysis at Reading University with MB, and is now at the Open University. Layla Saeed Al-Mazroai is a second year PhD student at Cardiff working on aspects of photocatalytic water splitting as is Abdullahi Nuhu who is working on selective oxidation catalysis using gold.
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Greaves, J., Al-Mazroai, L., Nuhu, A. et al. Photocatalytic methanol reforming on Au/TiO2 for hydrogen production. Gold Bull 39, 216–219 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03215557
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03215557