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Organic Semiconductor g‐C 3 N 4 Modified TiO 2 Nanotube Arrays for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Performance in Wastewater Treatment
Author(s) -
Liu Lingjuan,
Zhang Guan,
Irvine John T. S.,
Wu Yucheng
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
energy technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2194-4296
pISSN - 2194-4288
DOI - 10.1002/ente.201500114
Subject(s) - photocurrent , materials science , passivation , electrode , nanotube , degradation (telecommunications) , irradiation , water splitting , urea , sublimation (psychology) , chemical engineering , photocatalysis , nanotechnology , nuclear chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , catalysis , optoelectronics , layer (electronics) , chemistry , organic chemistry , carbon nanotube , psychology , psychotherapist , telecommunications , physics , computer science , nuclear physics , engineering
g‐C 3 N 4 sensitized TiO 2 nanotube arrays (g‐C 3 N 4 /TNTs) were fabricated by using a simple solid sublimation and transition (SST) method using urea as precursor. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) performances were evaluated in this work. It is proposed that the g‐C 3 N 4 layer can play dual roles: surface sensitization and passivation of TNTs surface trap states to inhibit charge recombination. The g‐C 3 N 4 /TNTs exhibited significantly improved PEC performance compared with TNTs under blue light (460 nm) irradiation. The g‐C 3 N 4 /TNTs prepared from 3 g urea showed the highest photocurrent density of approximately 65 μA cm −2 , which is almost 10 times as high as that of TNTs. Furthermore, g‐C 3 N 4 /TNTs showed enhanced photoelectrocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) under the blue light irradiation. The stable performance of degradation of MB in multicycle tests suggests that the hybrid g‐C 3 N 4 /TNT electrode could be used as a low‐cost photoelectrode material for wastewater treatment processes.