26–29 Oct 2026
Africa/Johannesburg timezone

Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution of Gallium Oxyhydroxide Synthesized from Varying Precursor (Gallium Nitrate) Concentrations

29 Oct 2026, 09:30
20m
Oral Presentation Session 1

Speaker

Tabitha Alango (University of South Africa)

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.

Authors

Duke Oeba (Department of Physics, Egerton University, Njoro, 536-20115, Kenya) Dr Jared Ombiro (Maasai Mara University) Dr Juliana Morbec (Keele University) Kholiswa Yokwana (UNISA) Luyanda Noto (UNISA) Dr Nilanthy Balakrishnan (Keele University) Pontsho Mbule Tabitha Alango (University of South Africa)

Presentation materials

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