Synthesis of Cr-incorporated and Cr-Ti-coimpregnated MCM-41 photocatalysts and their photocatalytic water splitting activities to hydrogen evolution under visible light irradiation

A series of Cr incorporated and Cr, Ti and co-incorporated MCM-41 photocatalysts were synthesized by hydrothermal method. XRD UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra, FTIR, X-ray fluorescence analysis, and N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms were used to investigate the effects of the incorporated elements on the structure of MCM-41. The experimental results for photocatalytic water splitting under visible light irradiation (ë > 430 nm) demonstrated that the photoactivities of Cr-MCM-41 and Cr-Ti-MCM-41 catalysts for hydrogen production decreased with the increasing of the amount of Cr incorporated. Compared with the Cr-MCM-41 which had the same amount of incorporated Cr, the Cr-Ti-MCM-41 exhibited much higher hydrogen evolution activities. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 231st ACS National Meeting (Atlanta, GA 3/26-30/2006).