Silver Bromide as a Photocatalyst for Hydrogen Generation from CH3OH/H2O Solution

A AgBr/SiO2 catalyst prepared from Schumann emulsion has been used for photolysis of CH3OH/H2O solution. Under UV illumination, H2 generation was observed and hydrogen was continuously evolved for 200 h without destruction of AgBr although Ag0 was detected by X-ray diffraction analysis after the reaction. It is presumed that the hydrogen production from methanol in distilled water occurs on the Ag0 and the support plays important roles for the photocatalysis as well as TiO2/SiO2 (J. Phys. Chem. B 1997, 101, 2611).