Solar hydrogen generation over CdS incorporated in Ti-MCM-48 mesoporous materials under visible light illumination.

MCM-48 cubic mesoporous materials contg. CdS and spatially isolated titania nanoclusters were prepd. in this study. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption isotherm, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), at. absorption spectrophotometry (AAS), UV-Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), XPS, and ESR (EPR) studies were employed for the characterization of the CdS contg. Ti-MCM-48 mesoporous materials. In the current study, all the samples showed photocatalytic activity under visible light (λ > 400 nm) irradn. for prodn. of hydrogen from splitting of water without Pt as a co-catalyst. The solar hydrogen evolution rate by visible light irradn. seemed to be dependent on CdS and TiO2 content and the most active photocatalyst produced hydrogen at a rate of 2.726 mmol/h/gcatalyst. The apparent quantum yield of the most active photocatalyst was estd. to be 36.3%. [on SciFinder(R)]