A NEW CATALYTIC SYSTEM FOR THE GENERATION OF HYDROGEN BY SOLAR PHOTOREFORMING OF AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS OF FORMIC ACID AT AMBIENT TEMPERATURE

A new catalytic system, CuII (or Cu(0))/Cl-/TiO2/formic acid/UVssr , is proposed to generate hydrogen by photoreforming of formic acid. The influence of TiO2 loads and formic acid concentrations is investigated. Starting from zero-valent copper, the results indicate that, in the presence of TiO2 and formic acid, no gains in terms of hydrogen formed are observed with respect to the adoption of the subsystem Cu(0)/Cl-/UVssr. On the other hand, starting from cupric ions, a surplus of hydrogen production is recorded with respect to that obtained from this subsystem.