H2 production from formic acid over highly stable and efficient Cu-Fe-O spinel based photocatalysts under flow, visible-light and at room temperature conditions

Catalytic dehydrogenation of liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC), such as formic acid (FAc), is considered a promising approach to safely store and easily transport at ambient conditions. Generally, this process suffers from low activity, reaction selectivity, stability the catalysts and/or use noble-metal based catalysts. In study, highly efficient CuFe2O4-based photocatalyst reported for photocatalytic FAc under visible light room temperature continuous gas flow. The effects various factors composition thermal pretreatment are investigated along series samples. synthesis, dispersion, oxidation states, photo-electrochemical properties performances these materials were in details. A synergetic effect, with relatively high selectivity (77% 6.6 mmol.g−1.h−1 H2 production) obtained on copper-rich samples without any significant deactivation two cycles 20 h/cycle. This study opens up new route design Cu-based photocatalysts cost-effective visible-light driven temperature.