Improving Visible Light-Absorptivity and Photoelectric Conversion Efficiency of a TiO₂ Nanotube Anode Film by Sensitization with Bi₂O₃ Nanoparticles.

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

This study presents a novel visible light-active TiO₂ nanotube anode film by sensitization with Bi₂O₃ nanoparticles. The uniform incorporation of Bi₂O₃ contributes to largely enhancing the solar light absorption and photoelectric conversion efficiency of TiO₂ nanotubes. Due to the energy level difference between Bi₂O₃ and TiO₂, the built-in electric field is suggested to be formed in the Bi₂O₃ sensitized TiO₂ hybrid, which effectively separates the photo-generated electron-hole pairs and hence improves the photocatalytic activity. It is also found that the photoelectric conversion efficiency of Bi₂O₃ sensitized TiO₂ nanotubes is not in direct proportion with the content of the sensitizer, Bi₂O₃, which should be carefully controlled to realize excellent photoelectrical properties. With a narrower energy band gap relative to TiO₂, the sensitizer Bi₂O₃ can efficiently harvest the solar energy to generate electrons and holes, while TiO₂ collects and transports the charge carriers. The new-type visible light-sensitive photocatalyst presented in this paper will shed light on sensitizing many other wide-band-gap semiconductors for improving solar photocatalysis, and on understanding the visible light-driven photocatalysis through narrow-band-gap semiconductor coupling.

Related collections

Most cited references 34

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

A review of one-dimensional TiO2 nanostructured materials for environmental and energy applications

Yuekun Lai, Chunyan Cao, Ke-Qin Zhang … (2016)

State-of-the-art development of fabrication methods and surface engineering strategies of 1D TiO2 nanostructures is reviewed, and an overview given of their potential applications including pollutant degradation/CO2 photoreduction photocatalysts, water splitting, solar cells, lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors.

0 comments Cited 169 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

Highly Visible Light Responsive, Narrow Band gap TiO2 Nanoparticles Modified by Elemental Red Phosphorus for Photocatalysis and Photoelectrochemical Applications

Sajid Ali Ansari, Moo Cho (2016)

This paper reports that the introduction of elemental red phosphorus (RP) into TiO2 can shift the light absorption ability from the UV to the visible region, and confirmed that the optimal RP loading and milling time can effectively improve the visible light driven-photocatalytic activity of TiO2. The resulting RP-TiO2 nanohybrids were characterized systematically by a range of techniques and the photocatalytic ability of the RP-TiO2 photocatalysts was assessed further by the photodegradation of a model Rhodamine B pollutant under visible light irradiation. The results suggest that the RP-TiO2 has superior photodegradation ability for model contaminant decomposition compared to other well-known photocatalysts, such as TiO2 and other reference materials. Furthermore, as a photoelectrode, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, differential pulse voltammetry, and linear scan voltammetry were also performed in the dark and under visible light irradiation. These photoelectrochemical performances of RP-TiO2 under visible light irradiation revealed more efficient photoexcited electron-hole separation and rapid charge transfer than under the dark condition, and thus improved photocatalytic activity. These findings show that the use of earth abundant and inexpensive red phosphorus instead of expensive plasmonic metals for inducing visible light responsive characteristics in TiO2 is an effective strategy for the efficient energy conversion of visible light.