Speaker
Description
Green hydrogen produced by photocatalytic water splitting is a promising clean energy source, but better photocatalysts are needed. Gallium oxyhydroxide (GaOOH) is widely used as a precursor for gallium oxide, yet its use for hydrogen evolution has not been reported. In this study, GaOOH was synthesised by a hydrothermal method using gallium nitrate concentrations from 0.1 to 0.5 M. X-ray diffraction confirmed pure orthorhombic α-GaOOH in all samples, with the unit-cell volume increasing as concentration increased. The band gap ranged from 4.64 to 5.28 eV. All samples produced hydrogen, and the 0.3 M sample gave the highest rate of about 0.35 mmol g⁻¹ min⁻¹. These results show that precursor concentration can be used to tune the properties and photocatalytic performance of GaOOH.