Fabrication of Nano-Composite Photocatalyst for Hydrogen Production from Water at Neutral pH

We report a nano-composite photocatalyst that more efficiently produced hydrogen from water at neutral pH, compared to the photocatalysts, Pt-tipped CdSe-CdS rods reported by Amirav and coworkers. Our nano-composite photocatalyst was fabricated by coupling Pt-tipped CdSe-CdS rods with titanium oxide nanoparticles. At pH 10, this fabricated nanocomposite photocatalyst was approximately 8 times as efficient in the production of hydrogen as the original nanorods. The nano-composite photocatalyst produced hydrogen at pH 7 with an efficiency that was 68% greater than the original nanorods.