Kinetics of photogenerated electrons involved in photocatalytic reaction of methanol on Pt/TiO2

Time-resolved IR spectroscopy was used to detect the photocatalytic reaction of methanol for H-2 production on Pt/TiO2 catalysts. There exists an optimal amount of Pt loading in the Pt/TiO2 catalysts for the reaction of the photogenerated long-lived electrons. For a given amount of Pt loading, the reaction rate of the long-lived electrons on Pt/TiO2 catalysts varies greatly with the different reduction temperature of the catalysts. The possible reason is that the Pt particles occupy the surface active sites for methanol adsorption on Pt/TiO2 catalysts reduced at high temperature. This phenomenon is not observed obviously on Pt/TiO2 catalysts reduced at low temperature. The decay rate of the long-lived electrons evaluated by time-resolved IR method qualitatively correlates well with the activity of H-2 production under steady-state irradiation conditions