Abstract
This study reports the effect of N,C-ITO (indium tin oxide) layer on composite N,C-TiO2/N,C-ITO/ITO (Ti/TO) electrode used for efficient photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) degradation of aqueous pollutant with simultaneous hydrogen production. The structural properties of the composite Ti/TO electrode that determined by X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering, show primarily the crystallized anatase TiO2phase and distinct diffraction patterns of polycrystalline In2O3phase. Under solar light illumination, the composite Ti/TO electrode yields simultaneously a hydrogen production rate of 12.0 μmol cm−2 h−1and degradation rate constant of cm−2 h−1in organic pollutant. It implies that the overlaid N,C-TiO2layer enhances not only the photocurrent response of the composite Ti/TO electrode at entire applied potentials, but also the flat band potential; a shift of about 0.1 V toward cathode, which is desperately beneficial in the PEC process. In light of the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy findings, these results are attributable partly to the synergetic effect of N,C-codoping into the TiO2and ITO lattices on their band gap narrowing and photosensitizing as well. Thus, the Ti/TO electrode can potentially serve an efficient PEC electrode for simultaneous pollutant degradation and hydrogen production.
Highlights
The photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) splitting of water using solar energy has attracted substantial attention as a means of producing hydrogen as a clean and renewable resource [1,2,3]
We previously found that an applied potential could serve as a highly efficient way to suppress hole-electron recombination of the N-doped In2O3 [31] and ITO (N-ITO) electrode, where the generated photocurrent density sharply increased with its applied potential
N,C-ITO and Ti/TO samples exhibit a significantly different pattern against the ITO substrate; the former two exhibit relatively large intensity ratios of (400)/(222) and (440)/(222) planes, as listed in Table 1, which are associated with the increase in resistivity of the host ITO
Summary
The photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) splitting of water using solar energy has attracted substantial attention as a means of producing hydrogen as a clean and renewable resource [1,2,3]. Both N-doped In2O3 [31] and ITO (N-ITO) [32] and C-doped In2O3 [33] electrodes were demonstrated to be promising photocatalysts with favorable PEC properties, especially under visible light (λ > 378 nm) Both ITO and NITO films exhibit no photocatalytic activity in degradation of MB solution [32], though photocatalytic degradation of azo dyes has been reported active [34]. We previously found that an applied potential could serve as a highly efficient way to suppress hole-electron recombination of the N-ITO electrode, where the generated photocurrent density sharply increased with its applied potential This was ascribed mostly to better electrical conductivity [31] and proper positions of the flat band potentials [35] as a result of suppression of InN and SnO2 phases in the domain-structured N-ITO electrode which was prepared at a low N-doping content [32]. We aim at the characterization of N,C-TiO2/ITO electrode with emphasis on the role of the intercalated N,CITO layer for PEC degradation of DMSO aqueous pollutant with simultaneous hydrogen production
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