Impact of Postprocessing Approaches and Interface Cocatalysts Regulation on Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution of Protonic Titanate Derived TiO2 Nanostructures

TiO 2 –based photocatalysis system for splitting water into hydrogen offers a sustainable and green technology to produce clean hydrogen energy. However, pristine TiO 2 still exists inherent shortcomings restricting its practical applications. Herein, the impact of postprocessing approaches of protonic titanate on engineering of oxygen vacancy and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution of TiO 2− x is studied. Subsequently, interfacial cocatalysts are successfully involved in the optimized TiO 2− x for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. TiO 2− x with the highest photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance of 3112.09 μmol g −1 h −1 , denoted as TiO 2 –C, is selected to adjust the interface with Cu and MoS 2 respectively. Cu–TiO 2 –C and MoS 2 –TiO 2 –C composites are synthesized to enhance the separation ability of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and significantly improve the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rates of 5 wt% Cu–TiO 2 –C and 40 wt% MoS 2 –TiO 2 –C are 9225.75 and 5765.48 μmol g −1 h −1 , respectively. It is proved that different postprocessing methods can tune the content of oxygen vacancy in TiO 2− x and regulate the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance of TiO 2− x materials. The interface regulation of the cocatalyst also contributes to the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and serves as active sites to enhance hydrogen evolution performance.