Sustainable hydrogen production by water decomposition in gamma radiolysis with post-modification studies of nano-BeO photocatalyst

Abstract

Background

There is a great demand for green hydrogen energy due to climate issues and economic pressures globally. Therefore, hydrogen production was achieved by water splitting using a nano-BeO photocatalyst.

Results

The hydrogen produced using BeO + H₂O_ads and nano-BeO + H₂O_liq systems was 9.0 × 10¹⁶ (at 7 h) and 32.8 × 10¹⁶ (at 5 h) molecules g⁻¹ at 300 K. The hydrogen production was optimized by raising the temperature in the BeO + H₂O_ads system and the maximum hydrogen obtained was 7.0 × 10¹⁷ and 8.5 × 10¹⁷ molecules g⁻¹ in thermal and radiation–thermal processes at 673 K for 5 h. The ranges of the values of W_Т(Н₂), W_R(Н₂) and W_RT(Н₂) at 373, 473, 573 and 673 K were 2.34 × 10¹³ to 37.9 × 10¹³, 8.8 × 10¹³ to 51.6 × 10¹³ and 9.22 × 10¹³ to 79.4 × 10¹³, respectively. The values of G(H₂) at these temperatures were 5.18, 11.3, 23.7 and 32.8 molecules (100 eV)⁻¹, respectively. The effect of γ-radiation on the nano-BeO surface was studied by electron paramagnetic resonance, which showed some localized defects on the volume traps. The concentration of such volume traps was very small, i.e. 4 × 10⁻² eV of the total number of traps.

Conclusion

Approximately 90–96% of all non-equilibrium carriers formed on the beryllium oxide surface interacted with adsorbed water molecules, responsible for the high catalytic capacity of nano-BeO. The mechanism of water splitting on the nano-BeO surface was developed. Finally, the reported methods are useful for hydrogen production on a large scale. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).