Photoelectrochemical Activity of Ag Coated 2D‐TiO2/RGO Heterojunction for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction and Environmental Remediation

Abstract Intermittent nature of renewable energy led us more to incline over energy conversion and storage. Thus, use of solar radiation towards energy conversion e. g. hydrogen evolution, environmental‐remediation etc. are emerging areas where the materials should be capable of absorbing light energy and transform this absorbed energy into other application. In the present work, the photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic activity of the Ag/TiO 2 /RGO catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and methyl orange dye degradation has been reported. Ag/TiO 2 /RGO catalyst showed the highest current density for HER which was ca. 2 and 3 times more than Ag NPs and TiO 2 nanoflakes, respectively. The interfacial charge transfer between RGO‐TiO 2 ‐Ag hetero‐junction actually improves the charge separation and increases both the photocatalytic activity and hydrogen generation. The composite was also equally capable to degrade environmental pollutant and with the addition of silver, methyl orange dye degradation percentage enhances from 8.9 % (TiO 2 nanoflakes) to 81 % (for Ag/TiO 2 /RGO) with the increment in rate constant from 9.38 X 10 −4 (TiO 2 nanoflakes) to 1.69×10 −2 min −1 .