TY - JOUR A1 - Kreft, S. A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Agostini, G. A1 - Pohl, M.-M. A1 - Gericke, E. A1 - Hoell, Armin A1 - Beller, M. A1 - Junge, H. A1 - Wohlrab, S. T1 - Dye activation of heterogeneous Copper(II)-Species for visible light driven hydrogen generation JF - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy N2 - Heterogeneous Cu catalysts are widely used in photocatalytic hydrogen generation. The typical working mode includes the transfer of photo-induced charges from a semiconductor to CuO which itself is reduced to Cu2O to initiate the catalytic cycle. In this contribution a photosensitizer (dye), excited by visible light absorption, was used to transfer an electron to the CuO which after reduction catalyzes the water reduction to hydrogen. Several copper(II)-catalysts on high surface silica were prepared by impregnation or precipitation and applied in photocatalytic water reduction. The best catalyst CuO(Cl0.1)/SiO2, synthesized via incipient wetness impregnation of CuCl2 in MCM-41 and a following precipitation with NaOH, achieved a 6 times higher activity (1702 mmol h-1 g-1) compared to a previously investigated copper system (280 mmol h-1 g-1 for CuI) under the same reaction conditions. All materials were fully characterized by XRD, TEM and N2 sorption and further by magnetic resonance and X-ray methods EPR, ASAXS and XAS. In situ measurements evidenced a reduction of the initial Cu(II)-species, which confirms the (proposed) photocatalytic mechanism. KW - Hydrogen generation KW - CuO nanoparticles KW - Molecular sieves PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.04.006 VL - 44 IS - 53 SP - 28409 EP - 28420 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-49350 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -