LAUSR

Abstract It is important to tune the electronic structure of TiO2 to harvest solar light for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production. As a widely used approach, doping enables TiO2 to respond to visible light, but generally does little to improve the photocatalytic performance because of the serious charge recombination. In this work, (Rh, Nb) codoped TiO2 nanorods (with Ti0.996Nb0.002Rh0.002O2 as an example) are found to be capable for both obvious absorption of visible light and efficient separation of photogenerated carriers. Consequently, this photocatalyst displays ultra-high activity for hydrogen production under the irradiation of either UV or visible light. The hydrogen evolution rate under simulated sunlight is as high as 7.85 mmol g−1 h−1 in methanol solution and 0.99 mmol g−1 h−1 in pure water, far higher than that for pristine TiO2 nanorods and Pt-loaded P25, respectively. This study demonstrates that Rh/Nb codoping is a promising strategy for enhancing the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2.