Cover Feature: Galvanic Deposition of Pt Nanoparticles on Black TiO2 Nanotubes for Hydrogen Evolving Cathodes (ChemSusChem 22/2021)

Aikaterini Touni,Xiaolan Kang,Patricia A Carvalho,Xin Liu,Kevin G Both,Sotirios Sotiropoulos,Athanasios Chatzitakis,Spyros Diplas

doi:10.1002/cssc.202102200

Aikaterini Touni, Xiaolan Kang + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.202102200

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Abstract

The Cover Feature shows the spontaneous galvanic deposition of metallic Pt nanoparticles on the top, but also inner TiO2 nanotube surfaces. High-aspect-ratio and heavily reduced TiO2 serves as the sacrificial template during this electroless deposition. A high-performing and stable hydrogen evolution cathode in acidic media is demonstrated and prepared via minimal engineering and low noble metal loadings. More information can be found in the Full Paper by A. Touni et al.

Highlights

Recent studies, mainly carried out during the last ten years, reflect the unique properties of black titania
Except for the bTNT0 sample, which appears with the expected hexagonal, honeycomb-like impressions left on the Ti foil from the bottom side of the peeled off nanotubes layer, the rest of the samples have the typical features of nanotubes grown in ethylene glycol-based electrolytes.[47,48]
In this work and for the first time, we showed the deposition of Pt nanoparticles (NPs) across the whole length of high aspect ratio black TiO2 nanotubes

Summary

Introduction

Mainly carried out during the last ten years, reflect the unique properties of black titania. Titania is a semiconducting material with a large bandgap (3.2 eV for anatase), and its properties include earth abundance, non-toxicity, and chemical stability in different media.[1,2,3] In contrast to the pristine TiO2, black titania shows metallic-like electronic conductivity,[2,4,5] which makes it an attractive oxide material for electrochemical investigations. Its dark color assists the adsorption of sunlight[6] in a wide wavelength range, from ultraviolet up to the near-infrared region,[7,8] due to the narrow bandgap and the mid-gap electronic states.[9] This material has gained great attention in the field of photocatalysis for the production of H2 gas during water splitting[3,4,10,11,12,13] and decomposition of organic pollutants such as phenol,[14] toluene,[15] ethyl acetate,[15] and methyl orange[16] in wastewater treatment.

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