Preparation and visible-light-driven photoelectrocatalytic properties of boron-doped TiO2 nanotubes

In the present study, chemical vapour deposition (CVD) was applied to dope boron into TiO₂ nanotubes anodized Ti in C₂H₂O₄·2H₂O + NH₄F electrolyte with the goal of improving the photocatalytic (PC) activity under visible light. The undoped TiO₂ nanotubes had a highly self-organized structure. However, after doping through CVD, TiO₂ nanotubes suffered from an observable disintegration of morphological integrity. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results confirmed that annealing temperature had an influence on the phase structure and boron impurities could retard anatase–rutile phase transition. Diffuse reflectance absorption spectra (DRS) analysis indicated that B-doped samples displayed stronger absorption in both UV and visible range. B-doped TiO₂ nanotubes electrode annealed at 700 °C through CVD showed higher photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) efficiency in methyl orange (MO) degradation than that annealed at 400 °C and 550 °C. MO degradation was substantially enhanced with the increasing applied bias potential. Moreover, there was a synergetic effect between the electrochemical and photocatalytic processes, and the synergetic factor R reached 1.45. B-doped TiO₂ nanotubes electrode showed good stability after 10 times by repeating photoelectrocatalysis of MO.