Abstract
Coupling of TiO2 nanotube arrays (NTAs) with narrow band gap materials has been a promising strategy to extend the absorption of TiO2 into visible light region. In this work, the fabrication of manganese doped TiO2 nanotube arrays (Mn/TiO2 NTAs) was carried out by an electrodeposition method. The deposition time of Mn onto TiO2 NTAs which was varied in the range of 1-5 minutes was found to play an important role in controlling the formation and distribution of Mn nanoparticles onto TiO2 NTAs. The films were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy to determine their morphology, crystalline structure, and optical properties of the samples. The results from FESEM showed that Mn nanoparticles were found to grow larger and cause blockage to the mouth of the nanotubes with prolongs deposition time. On the other hand, Mn/TiO2 NTAs synthesized with shorter deposition time exhibits significant enhancements in the optical absorption and photocurrent density. In particular, the Mn/TiO2 NTAs produced at 1minute deposition time exhibited the highest photocurrent density compared to the others. The uniform distribution and quantity of the Mn could be the reason for this performance, therefore, more light was absorbed and generating more electron-hole pairs then giving the highest photocurrent.Â
Highlights
TiO2 is a semiconductor material with low toxicity, good chemical stability, environmentally friendly nature, low cost, and naturally abundance [1,2,3]
The morphological of TiO2 nanotube arrays (NTAs) and Mn/ TiO2 NTAs were studied via Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM, JSM-7600F, JOEL, Japan) while Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) spectrophotometer coupled with field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) was used to analyze the elemental composition of the sample
X-ray diffractometry (XRD) analysis confirmed the presence of Mn into TiO2 NTAs
Summary
TiO2 is a semiconductor material with low toxicity, good chemical stability, environmentally friendly nature, low cost, and naturally abundance [1,2,3]. TiO2 nanotube arrays (NTAs) synthesized via anodization technique, with high surface areas and well-ordered structures is of improved or new character in comparison to other different morphologies (nanorod, nanoparticles, nanobelts). In order to improve the photoelectrochemical properties of TiO2 NTAs, many research efforts on modification of TiO2 NTAs have been carried out. Our previous studies on the modification of TiO2 NTAs included the deposition of CdS [13] and CdSe [14] onto TiO2 NTAs. Deposition of metal ions onto TiO2 NTAs is one of the effective methodologies to improve the photoelectrochemical properties of TiO2 NTAs as the absorption into visible light region by TiO2 could be extended via lowering band gap energy effect of the metal dopant as Nb, Zr, Bi, and V [15,16,17]. As a comparison, the TiO2 NTAs were synthesized using the same procedure and were characterized
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