Author(s)

Haruna Banno, Ben Kariya, Norifumi Isu, Muneaki Ogawa, Saeko Miwa, Keisuke Sawada, Junki Tsuge, Shoichiro Imaizumi, Hidenori Kato, Kyota Tokutake, Seiichi Deguchi

Department of Energy Engineering and Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.
Kitchen and Bathroom Technology Research Institute, LIXIL Corporation, Tokoname, Japan.
School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA.

The effect of (Pt-loaded)TiO₂ crystallite diameter (i.e. Scherrer size) on the photocatalytic water splitting rate was investigated. (Pt-loaded)TiO₂ powders with a wide range of crystallite diameters from about 16 to 45 nm with a blank region between about 23 and 41 nm were prepared by various annealing processes from an identical TiO₂ powder. Water splitting experiments with these powders were carried out with methanol as an oxidizing sacrificial agent. It was found that the photocatalytic water splitting rate was sensitively affected by the crystallite diameter of the (Pt-loaded)TiO₂ powder. More concretely, similar steep improvements of photocatalytic water splitting rates from around 15 and a little over 2 to about 30 μmol·m^-2hr^-1 were obtained in the two (Pt-loaded)TiO₂ crystallite diameters ranging from 16 to 23 and from 41 to 45 nm, respectively.

Photocatalytic Water Splitting, TiO2 Crystallite Diameter, Scherrer Size, X-Ray Diffraction, Critical Water Anneal

Banno, H. , Kariya, B. , Isu, N. , Ogawa, M. , Miwa, S. , Sawada, K. , Tsuge, J. , Imaizumi, S. , Kato, H. , Tokutake, K. and Deguchi, S. (2014) Effect of TiO2 Crystallite Diameter on Photocatalytic Water Splitting Rate. Green and Sustainable Chemistry, 4, 87-94. doi: 10.4236/gsc.2014.42013.