Photoelectrochemical H2 Generation from Suboxide TiO2 Nanotubes: Visible-Light Absorption versus Conductivity

Shiva Mohajernia; Seyedsina Hejazi; Anca Mazare; Nhat Truong Nguyen; Patrik Schmuki

doi:10.1002/chem.201702245

Photoelectrochemical H₂ Generation from Suboxide TiO₂ Nanotubes: Visible-Light Absorption versus Conductivity

Chemistry. 2017 Sep 7;23(50):12406-12411. doi: 10.1002/chem.201702245. Epub 2017 Jul 19.

Authors

Shiva Mohajernia¹, Seyedsina Hejazi¹, Anca Mazare¹, Nhat Truong Nguyen¹, Patrik Schmuki^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science Engineering, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Martensstrasse 7, 91058, Erlangen, Germany.
² Department of Chemistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 28654181
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201702245

Abstract

In the present work we report on the key factors dictating the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance of suboxide titania (TiO_x ) nanotubes. TiO_x nanotubes were produced by a systematic variation of reduction heat treatments of TiO₂ in Ar/H₂ . The properties of the TiO_x tubes were investigated by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), solid-state conductivity, reflectivity measurements, photocurrent spectroscopy, and photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution. In line with earlier literature, these suboxide tubes show a drastically improved photoelectrochemical water-splitting performance compared to non-reduced anatase TiO₂ tubes. In this work we show that the key improvement in water-splitting performance is due to the strongly improved conductivity of TiO_x semimetalic tubes, reaching 13.5 KΩ per tube compared to 70 MΩ (for non-reduced anatase), and is not due to the enhanced visible-light absorbance.

Keywords: anodization; nanotubes; photoanodes; photoelectric properties; titanium; water splitting.