Carbon-based titanium dioxide materials for hydrogen production in water-methanol reforming: A review

Photocatalytic water splitting technology has broad prospect in dealing with the global energy shortage and environmental problems. TiO2 semiconductor is the most widely applied photocatalyst. However, weak response to visible light and rapid recombination of electron-hole limite its photocatalytic performance. TiO2 coupling with carbon materials can improve this problems, which are attributed to electrical conductivity and abundant pore structure of carbon materials. Based on this, the methods to enhance the visible response of TiO2 are summarized and the deep understanding of carbon nanotubes, graphene, activated carbon, carbon quantum dots, fullerene 60, carbon fibers, and biochar in photocatalytic process are proposed. DFT simulation is used to calculate the mechanism of electron migration and catalytic reaction in carbon/TiO2. The scheme of using water/methanol solution to promote the hydrogen production performance of photocatalysts is described in detail. Finally, the challenges and development directions of carbon-based TiO2 materials are summarized.