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In Situ Preparation of a Ti 3+ Self‐Doped TiO 2 Film with Enhanced Activity as Photoanode by N 2 H 4 Reduction
Author(s) -
Mao Chengyu,
Zuo Fan,
Hou Yang,
Bu Xianhui,
Feng Pingyun
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201406017
Subject(s) - photocurrent , materials science , doping , substrate (aquarium) , foil method , hydrothermal circulation , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , hydrothermal synthesis , analytical chemistry (journal) , optoelectronics , chemistry , oceanography , chromatography , engineering , composite material , geology
A new synthetic method to fabricate Ti 3+ ‐modified, highly stable TiO 2 photoanodes for H 2 O oxidation is reported. With Ti foil as both the conducting substrate and the Ti 3+ /Ti 4+ source, one‐dimensional blue Ti 3+ /TiO 2 crystals were grown by a one‐step hydrothermal reaction. The concentration of Ti 3+ was further tuned by N 2 H 4 reduction, leading to a greater photoelectrocatalytic activity, as evidenced by a high photocurrent density of 0.64 mA cm −2 at 1.0 V vs RHE under simulated AM 1.5 G illumination. Electron paramagnetic resonance and Mott–Schottky plots reveal that higher charge‐carrier density owing to N 2 H 4 reduction contributes to the observed improvement. The generality of this synthesis method was demonstrated by its effectiveness in improving the performance of other types of photoanodes. By integrating the advantages of the 1D TiO 2 architecture with those of Ti 3+ self‐doping, this work provides a versatile tool toward the fabrication of efficient TiO 2 photoanodes.