Electrochemical Properties of TiO2 Electrode Prepared by Various Methods

Abstract

Abstract Thin transparent TiO2 layers were created on the conductive ITO glass by means of the templated sol-gel technique and by the subsequent calcination at 450° C. The sol-gel method using molecular templating is based on a chemical process utilizing hydrolysis and polycondesation of metal alkoxides in the core of reverse micelles which allows a production of uniform particles in layers. The sol-gel method was chosen by reason of the sol-gel layers electrodes are transparent and possess very stabile surface. For the preparation of the thin sol-gel TiO 2 films, numerous deposition techniques were applied. This contribution is focused on the study of structural and photo-electrochemical properties of the sol-gel nanostructured layers deposited by two various techniques (a dip-coating and an inkjet printing). The sol's viscosity, concentration, solvent volatility, speed of pulling etc. may influence the final structural properties of layers, such as film thickness, nanoparticles size and surface morphology. The surface properties were determined by XRD, Raman, SEM, AFM and UV-Vis analyses. Photo-induced electrochemical properties were measured by potentiodynamic methods in the three-compartment electrochemical cell. This Pyrex cell contained supporting electrolyte (0.1 M Na2SO4) and the TiO2/ITO electrode was used as a working electrode. As an UV source the polychromatic mercury lamp was employed and the wavelength of the incident light was focused by an interference filter on 365 nm.