Photocatalytic hydrogen production from dye contaminated water and electrochemical supercapacitors using carbon nanohorns and TiO2 nanoflower heterogeneous catalysts

• Published in: Journal of environmental management Vol. 277; p. 111433
• Main Authors: Ramesh Reddy, N., Mamatha Kumari, M., Shankar, M.V., Raghava Reddy, Kakarla, Woo Joo, Sang, Aminabhavi, Tejraj M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-01-2021
• Subjects: Dye degradation and hydrogen production; Electrochemical energy storage devices; Hierarchical nanostructures; Photocatalysis; Specific capacitance; TiO2 nanoflowers; Specific capacitance; TiO2 nanoflowers; Hierarchical nanostructures; Photocatalysis; Electrochemical energy storage devices; Dye degradation and hydrogen production
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111433

In this research, efficient and novel catalysts based on hierarchical carbon nanohorns-titanium nanoflowers have been prepared by one-pot solvothermal process. Hydrogen generation from dye-contaminated water and dye degradation along with electrochemical supercapacitance performance have been investigated using the synthesized hierarchical catalyst to produce 4500 μmol g−1 h−1 of hydrogen from the photocatalytically generated aqueous methylene blue and methyl orange dyes, which were degraded up to 90% under natural solar light irradiation. These results offer a new path to generate hydrogen from the aqueous dyes. The catalysts electrode showed 164.6 F g−1 supercapacitance at 5 mV s−1 scan rate, which is nearly 1.3 and 1.65-times higher than that of pristine titanium nanoflower and carbon nanohorns electrodes, respectively. Such superior results were achieved due to good crystallinity, improved optical absorption strength, strong chemical composition between the two components, and hierarchical morphology as demonstrated from XRD, UV-DRS, TEM, XPS, and Raman spectral characterizations.
•CNHs -TFs heterogeneous catalyst synthesized by a one-pot solvothermal process.•H2 production from aqueous dye solutions and electrochemical performances investigated.•Catalyst showed 4500 μmolg−1h−1 of H2 from MB and MO dyes, dyes also depleted by 90%.•CNH-TF electrode was showed 164.6 F g−1 supercapacitance at 5 mV s−1 scan rate.