Carbon-incorporated TiO2 photoelectrodes prepared via rapid-anodic oxidation for efficient visible-light hydrogen generation |
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Authors: | Warapong Krengvirat Srimala Sreekantan Ahmad-Fauzi Mohd Noor Nobuaki Negishi Song Yul Oh Go Kawamura Hiroyuki Muto Atsunori Matsuda |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang 14300, Malaysia;2. Institute for Environmental Management Technology, National Institute of Advanced, Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8569, Japan;3. Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Aichi 441-8580, Japan |
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Abstract: | Carbon-incorporated titanium dioxide (TiO2) photoelectrodes with different structural features were prepared via rapid-anodic oxidation under different electrical potentials and exposure times. The interstitial carbon arising from the pyrogenation of ethylene glycol electrolytes induced a new C2p occupied state at the bottom of the conduction band, which lowered the band gap energy to ∼2.3 eV and consequently enabled the visible-light responsiveness. Photoelectrodes with nanotubular structures provided higher photoconversion efficiency (η) and hydrogen (H2) evolution capability than those with irregular structures. The increased aspect ratio, wall thickness, and pore size of the nanotube arrays contributed to η through greater photon excitation and penetration. However, this contribution is limited by the high recombination of the charge carriers at ultra-high aspect ratios. Photoelectrodes with a nanotube length of ∼19.5 μm, pore size of ∼103 nm, wall thickness of ∼17 nm, and aspect ratio of ∼142.5 exhibited remarkable capability to generate H2 at an evolution rate of up to ∼508.3 μL min−1 cm−2 and η of ∼2.3%. |
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Keywords: | Titanium dioxide Anodic oxidation Visible-light response Hydrogen energy Photoelectrochemical process |
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