Abstract
The solar-driven water splitting for the production of renewable green hydrogen fundamentally relies on the exploration of efficient photocatalysts. Nanostructured TiO(2) is widely recognized as a promising material for photocatalysis, yet it remains hindered by inadequate light harvesting and fast photogenerated carrier recombination. Herein, calcined C/TiO(2) xerogels with yolk-shell and core-shell nanostructures (denoted as YS-C/TiO(2) and CS-C/TiO(2)) were designed and fabricated via a typical sol-gel-calcination assisted approach. Thanks to the encapsulation of carbon nanospheres into TiO(2), it effectively enhances light absorption, improves carrier separation, and lessens carrier recombination, making the well-designed YS-C/TiO(2) composite display a remarkable hydrogen evolution rate of 975 µmol g(-1) h(-1) under simulated solar light irradiation and without the use of any co-catalyst, which is approximately 21.7 times that of the commercial TiO(2). The work provides an efficacious design concept in developing nanostructured TiO(2)-based photocatalysts and in boosting broad photocatalytic applications.