Organic Semiconductor g‐C3N4 Modified TiO2 Nanotube Arrays for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Performance in Wastewater Treatment. Issue 9 (17th July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Lingjuan; Zhang, Guan; Irvine, John T. S.; Wu, Yucheng
• Is Part Of: Energy technology. Volume 3:Issue 9(2015:Sep.)
• Page Start: 982
• Page End: 988
• Publication Date: 2015-07-17
• Subjects: Energy development -- Periodicals; Power resources -- Periodicals; 333.79
• DOI: 10.1002/ente.201500114
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2194-4288

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>g‐C₃N₄ sensitized TiO₂ nanotube arrays (g‐C₃N₄/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‐C₃N₄ layer can play dual roles: surface sensitization and passivation of TNTs surface trap states to inhibit charge recombination. The g‐C₃N₄/TNTs exhibited significantly improved PEC performance compared with TNTs under blue light (460 nm) irradiation. The g‐C₃N₄/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‐C₃N₄/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‐C₃N₄/TNT electrode could be used as a low‐cost photoelectrode material for wastewater treatment processes.</p> </abstract>