Novel Carbon-Doped TiO₂ Nanotube Arrays with High Aspect Ratios for Efficient Solar Water Splitting

Abstract

The photocatalytic splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen using solar light is a potentially clean and renewable source for hydrogen fuel.(1,2) There has been extensive investigation into metal-oxide semiconductors such as TiO(2), WO(3), and Fe(2)O(3), which can be used as photoanodes in thin-film form.(3-5) Of the materials being developed for photoanodes, TiO(2) remains one of the most promising because of its low cost, chemical inertness, and photostability.(6) However, the widespread technological use of TiO(2) is hindered by its low utilization of solar energy in the visible region. In this study, we report the preparation of vertically grown carbon-doped TiO(2) (TiO(2-x)C(x)) nanotube arrays with high aspect ratios for maximizing the photocleavage of water under white-light irradiation. The synthesized TiO(2-x)C(x) nanotube arrays showed much higher photocurrent densities and more efficient water splitting under visible-light illumination (> 420 nm) than pure TiO(2) nanotube arrays. The total photocurrent was more than 20 times higher than that with a P-25 nanoparticulate film under white-light illumination.