Rapid Facile Microwave-assisted Solvothermal Synthesis of Rod-like CuO/TiO2 for High Efficiency photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Rod-like CuO/TiO$_{2}$ was prepared by a rapid facile microwave-assisted solvothermal method for high efficiency photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. The structure of obtained CuO/TiO$_{2}$ samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and the amount of produced hydrogen was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC). CuO decorated TiO$_{2}$ rods exhibited greatly improvement of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Utilizing 30 mg of CuO/TiO$_{2}$ rods sample showed highest hydrogen evolution rate over utilizing 50 mg and 100 mg. Comparing to hydrogen evolution rate of 45.4 $\mu$mol h$^{-1}$ g$^{1}$ by using bare Rod-like TiO$_{2}$, 1 wt{\%} CuO loaded TiO$_{2}$ rods presented the highest hydrogen evolution rate of 3508.7 $\mu$mol h$^{-1}$ g$^{-1}$ while hydrogen evolution rate of 0.5 wt{\%}, 5 wt{\%}, and 10 wt{\%} CuO loaded TiO$_{2}$ rods were 157.1, 2817, and 2595 $\mu$mol h$^{-1}$ g$^{-1}$, respectively. Such enhancement of photocatalytic activity could be ascribed to that CuO improves not only light harvesting but also enhanced separation of electron-hole charge carriers