Abstract
Mo,N-codoped TiO2nanotube arrays (TNAs) were fabricated by a two-step method consisting of electrochemical anodization and subsequent magnetron sputtering of Mo. The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS). The results showed that the Mo,N-codoped TiO2nanotube arrays exhibited higher visible light absorbance and remarkably enhanced photocurrent density and photocatalytic activity compared with single N-doped TiO2. The highly efficient photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic activity is associated with the codoping effect between Mo and N, which plays a key role in producing new states, narrowing the bandgap, and reducing the recombination thereby effectively improving the visible light absorption and photocatalytic activity of TNAs.
Highlights
TiO2 is one of the most studied compounds in materials science and widely used in the fields of photocatalysis, dye-sensitized solar cells, and biomedical devices owing to its outstanding chemical and physical properties, such as ease of synthesis, chemical stability, and long lifetime of electron/hole pairs [1]
The morphologies of N-TiO2 and Mo,Ncodoped TiO2 nanotube arrays (TNAs) were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
We considered that the lower visible light absorption could be attributed to the low level of nitrogen doping, which was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis
Summary
TiO2 is one of the most studied compounds in materials science and widely used in the fields of photocatalysis, dye-sensitized solar cells, and biomedical devices owing to its outstanding chemical and physical properties, such as ease of synthesis, chemical stability, and long lifetime of electron/hole pairs [1]. In particular the doping by N, has attracted increasing attention due to its effectiveness in realizing visible-light photocatalytic activity of TiO2 [13, 14]. The N doping level is usually very low This solution-based N doping sometimes compromises the effectiveness of band gap narrowing and provides numerous recombination centers resulting in the loss of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The modified N-doped TiO2 usually showed favorable effects for improving the visible-light photocatalytic activity compared to single Ndoped TiO2. Mo and N-doped TiO2 nanostructures have been synthesized with various methods to obtain enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity. We have fabricated Mo,N-codoped TNAs by magnetron sputtering of Mo on the electrochemically anodized TNAs. The photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic properties of codoped TNAs were investigated under visible light irradiation and compared with those of single N-doped TNAs
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