Characterizing Au/TiO2 Nanocomposites for Photo-Catalytic Water Splitting

The use of hydrogen as an alternative fuel source is slightly misleading due to the fact that hydrogen is typically produced from natural gas.  In order for hydrogen to become a viable alternative to fossil fuels, an alternative production method will need to be developed.  One method that has potential is the process of photo-catalytically splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen gas.  Previously, nano-sized TiO₂ particles have been found to have some ultraviolet photo-activity for water splitting, but the ideal catalyst will work using just visible light as an energy source.  In this study, a TiO­₂ nano-composite was created with a gold nanoparticle loading.  Gold particles are known to exhibit visible light photo-activity and the thought is that gold nanoparticles will impart some of that visible light photo-activity on the TiO₂.  The nano-composites formed were studied to determine the effectiveness of the process for fabricating gold loaded TiO₂ nano-composites with visible light photo-activity.