Photocatalytic generation of hydrogen using sonoluminescence and sonochemiluminescence

Abstract

Acoustically generated sonoluminescence (SL) and sonochemiluminescence (SCL) have been used to produce molecular hydrogen in a photocatalytic process using Ru(bipy) 3 2+ as a photosensitizer, methyl viologen as an electron relay agent, and colloidal platinum as the catalyst. SL and SCL and various radicals were generated in water using 355 kHz ultrasound. The efficacy of the photocatalytic hydrogen production was to some extent limited by sonochemical side reactions, however, the in situ photon generation was sufficiently intense for pronounced H 2 generation above the background sonochemical processes. © 2011 American Chemical Society.