LAUSR

Abstract Hydrogen (H2) production from photocatalytic reforming of cellulose is a promising way for sustainable H2 to be generated. Herein, we report a systematic study of the photocatalytic reforming of cellulose over Pt/m-TiO2 (i.e. mixed TiO2, 80% of anatase and 20% of rutile) catalysts in water. The optimum operation condition was established by studying the effect of Pt loading, catalyst concentration, cellulose concentration and reaction temperature on the gas production rate of H2 (rH2) and CO2 (rCO2), suggesting an optimum operation condition at 40 °C with 1.0 g·L−1 of cellulose and 0.75 g·L−1 of 0.16-Pt/m-TiO2 catalyst (with 0.16 wt% Pt loadting) to achieve a relatively sound photocatalytic performance with rH2 = 9.95 μmol·h−1. It is also shown that although the photoreforming of cellulose was operated at a relatively mild condition (i.e. with an UV-A lamp irradiation at 40 °C in the aqueous system), a low loading of Pt at ~ 0.16 wt% on m-TiO2 could promote the H2 production effectively. Additionally, by comparing the reaction order expressed from both rH2 (a1) and rCO2 (a2) with respect to cellulose and water, the possible mechanism of H2 production was proposed.