Production de H2 par dissociation de l'eau sur des photocatalyseurs mésoporeux dopés à l’argent.

Abstract

This master's thesis has been divided in the study of two main topics. The first part was devoted to the study of silver based nanostructured catalysts which present a real potential in photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production. This first part has concerned the preparation of silver catalysts supported on mesoporous TiO2 and Co3O4 by impregnation– reduction with citrate (IRC), with various silver loadings. This study has shown that silver doping improves the crystallinity of mesoporous TiO2 and Co3O4 and decreases their band gap energies. The second part has concerned the evaluation of photocatalytic activities of doped and undoped mesoporous TiO2 and Co3O4 both under ultraviolet and visible light irradiation in photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production. The results have shown the enhanced photocatalytic activities of silver doped mesoporous oxides both under ultraviolet and visible light irradiation. It emerges from this work that 0.5% Ag / TiO2 is a potential catalyst in photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production provided that a suitable sacrificial agent is used; it is worth noting that mesoporous Co3O4 is also a potential candidate since it is active under visible light irradiation without any doping.