Fluorine and tin co-doping synergistically improves the photoelectrochemical water oxidation performance of TiO2 nanorod arrays by enhancing the ultraviolet light conversion efficiency. Issue 32 (19th July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wu, Tong; Chen, Changlong; Wei, Yuling; Lu, Ranran; Wang, Leshuang; Jiang, Xuchuan
• Is Part Of: Dalton transactions. Volume 48:Issue 32(2019)
• Page Start: 12096
• Page End: 12104
• Publication Date: 2019-07-19
• Subjects: Chemistry, Inorganic -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Physical and theoretical -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Inorganic -- Periodicals; 546.05
• DOI: 10.1039/c9dt01994d
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1477-9226

Abstract

Abstract : Fluorine and tin co-doping changes the electronic structure of rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays, leading to much-enhanced UV light conversion efficiency and significantly improved photoelectrochemical water oxidation performance. Abstract : Fluorine and tin co-doped rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays are grown on fluorine-doped tin oxide substrates by a hydrothermal process and are used as photoanodes to perform photoelectrochemical water oxidation. Fluorine and tin co-doping synergistically enhances the ultraviolet light conversion efficiency of the resulting TiO2, which enables its photocurrent density of photoelectrochemical water oxidation to be more than four times that of the undoped samples. Such improvement in photoelectrochemical performance is attributed to changes in the electronic structure of the rutile TiO2 due to fluorine and tin co-doping. It is found that introducing tin into the matrix of rutile TiO2 can improve the charge separation efficiency because of the enhanced migration of photogenerated electrons from the conduction band of TiO2 to that of SnO2 that occurs at local sites, while fluorine doping can greatly reduce the recombination of the photogenerated electron–hole pairs due to the presence of the Ti 3+ state that is produced to compensate for the charge difference between F − ions and O 2− ions. It is envisaged that the fluorine and tin co-doped TiO2 nanorod arrays described will provide valuable platforms for wide photocatalytic applications that are not merely limited to photoelectrochemical water oxidation.