A one-pot solvothermal method for the synthesis of a magnetically retrievable ZnFe2O4 incorporated biphase TiO2 photocatalyst for robust efficient solar fuel (hydrogen) production

In response to the worldwide energy problem and environmental contamination that hinders any society's ability to develop. Herein, a 1-pot solvothermal approach was used to fabricate a ZnFe2O4 integrated biphase TiO2 photocatalyst for use in solar fuel (hydrogen) generation. Using glycerol as a hole-scavenger, the synthesized material is exposed to solar light and tested for hydrogen generation. Following the addition of ZnFe2O4 to the TiO2, a significant photoluminescence (PL) quenching and band gap reduction from 3.20 to 2.51 eV were noted. In total, 30 wt% ZnFe2O4 produces a peak solar fuel (hydrogen) generation rate of 879.8 mu mol g-1 h-1, which is 7.3 and 9.5 times higher than TiO2 and ZnFe2O4, respectively. It is worthy to mention that the optimized photocatalyst yielded a solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 1.01%. This notable enhancement is associated with band gap reduction, PL quenching, and heterostructured creation between ZnFe2O4 and TiO2. It is worthwhile to bring up here. It is important to note that, while utilizing the same photocatalyst, our findings are noticeably better than those that have been previously reported. Using solar light, this work has shown a potential method for synthesizing a ZnFe2O4-TiO2-based photocatalyst for use in energy and environmental remediation.