N-Doped Carbon Nanofibers Coupled with TiO₂ Quantum Dots for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Small-sized particles are usually used as cocatalysts and anchored onto a large-sized photocatalyst for fast charge separation. However, the current problem for the design of photocatalysts is that a high loading of small-sized particles leads to full coverage of photocatalysts, resulting in the decrease of hydrogen production. Here, we propose a different way to construct photocatalytic systems. Large-scale carbon nanotubes with doped nitrogen (N-CNTs) are used to couple with TiO2 quantum dots. The H2 yield for our optimized photocatalytic system is ∼146 mmol/g. With further considering the light-induced thermal effect, the H2 yield reaches up to ∼320.6 mmol/g. Electrochemical and spectroscopic data show that large-sized N-CNTs can offer abundant active sites to realize the rapid carrier separation for tremendously improved hydrogen production.