Ghosh, Srabanti and Keshri, Shweta Rani and Bera, Susmita and Basu, Rajendra Nath (2020) Enhanced solar hydrogen generation using Cu-Cu2O integrated polypyrrole nanofibers as heterostructured catalysts. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 45 (11). pp. 6159-6173. ISSN 0360-3199

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Abstract

Nanostructured conducting polymeric materials are beneficial for electron conduction and mass transport, showing prominent photocatalytic performance for dye degradation under visible light. Herein, we report a simple colloidal route for large-scale synthesis of copper and copper oxides (Cu2O) modified polypyrrole nanofibers (PPy) heterostructures, which demonstrate significantly high performance towards H2 generation under visible light. The presence of Cu nanoparticles (NPs) of 50 nm and cubic shaped Cu2O nanoparticles of size ~200 nm endows the heterostructures with a large specific surface area as well as good dispersion of nanoparticles on PPy nanofibers allows the migration of electron during catalysis. The UV-Visible diffuse reflectance spectra displayed strong absorption in the visible region, which favors the photocatalytic performance. Under visible light irradiation, Cu2O/PPy exhibits excellent H2 production with the rate of 67 mmol h−1 which is ~12 times higher than PPy (5.7 mmol h–1). The optimal catalyst Cu/PPy-0.05 exhibits the high hydrogen generation rate of ~ 50 mmol h–1, which reaches 8.6 times of pure PPy. The Mott–Schottky plot revealed that photo generated charge carrier concentration has been increased considerably for Cu2O/PPy (2.791013cm3) compare to pure PPy (1.431011 cm3). The high-performance Cu2O/PPy catalyst provides a fervent alternative to noble metal-based catalysts for the hydrogen generation in practical applications.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Electronics
Divisions:	Fuel Cell and Battery
Depositing User:	Bidhan Chaudhuri
Date Deposited:	18 Mar 2020 10:31
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2020 10:31
URI:	http://cgcri.csircentral.net/id/eprint/4530

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