Synthesis of visible and near infrared light sensitive amorphous titania for photocatalytic hydrogen evolutionElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: HRTEM analyses of products from different times of anaerobic hydrolysis, XRD, XPS, EPR, and UV-vis analyses for c-TiO2−x, calculation of the bandgap, and EPR spectra of a-TiO2. See DOI: 10.1039/c5gc02170g

• Main Authors: Jiang, Jinghui, Tang, Xingwei, Zhou, Shujun, Ding, Jian, Zhou, Han, Zhang, Fan, Zhang, Di, Fan, Tongxiang
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 1463-9262; 1463-9270
• DOI: 10.1039/c5gc02170g

A simple and environmentally safe method of anaerobic hydrolysis was designed to synthesize amorphous TiO 2− x containing Ti 3+ from the dissolution of Ti 0 by water in an anaerobic environment. The disordered arrangement of atoms in amorphous TiO 2− x enables it to expand its light absorbing boundary from the ultraviolet to near infrared light region by narrowing its mobility gap to 1.5 eV. As a result, an effective visible and near infrared light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water splitting can be achieved by the as-synthesized amorphous TiO 2− x with the aid of Ti 3+ to inhibit charge recombination. An ideal quantum yield of approximately 4.57% was achieved at a wavelength of 488 nm. This strategy represents a new approach to alter the activity of TiO 2 , and it is meaningful for achieving green production of artificial clean energy. An anaerobic hydrolysis of titanium metal was designed to synthesize visible and near infrared light sensitive amorphous titania.