TiO 2 -Au composite nanofibers for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

TiO 2 -based materials for photocatalytic hydrogen (H 2 ) evolution have attracted much interest as a renewable approach for clean energy applications. TiO 2 -Au composite nanofibers (NFs) with an average fiber diameter of ∼160 nm have been fabricated by electrospinning combined with calcination treatment. In situ reduced gold nanoparticles (NPs) with uniform size (∼10 nm) are found to disperse homogenously in the TiO 2 NF matrix. The TiO 2 -Au composite NFs catalyst can significantly enhance the photocatalytic H 2 generation with an extremely high rate of 12 440 μmol g -1 h -1 , corresponding to an adequate apparent quantum yield of 5.11% at 400 nm, which is 25 times and 10 times those of P25 (584 μmol g -1 h -1 ) and pure TiO 2 NFs (1254 μmol g -1 h -1 ), respectively. Furthermore, detailed studies indicate that the H 2 evolution efficiency of the TiO 2 -Au composite NF catalyst is highly dependent on the gold content. This work provides a strategy to develop highly efficient catalysts for H 2 evolution.