Black TiO2 has demonstrated a great potential for a variety of renewable energy technologies. However, its practical application is heavily hindered due to lack of efficient hydrogenation methods and a deeper understanding of hydrogenation mechanisms. Here, a simple and straightforward hot wire annealing (HWA) method is presented to prepare black TiO2 (H–TiO2) nanorods with enhanced photo‐electrochemical (PEC) activity by means of atomic hydrogen [H]. Compared to conventional molecular hydrogen approaches, the HWA shows remarkable effectiveness without any detrimental side effects on the device structure, and simultaneously the photocurrent density of H–TiO2 reaches 2.5 mA cm−2 (at 1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)). Due to the controllable and reproducible [H] flux, the HWA can be developed as a standard hydrogenation method for black TiO2. Meanwhile, the relationships between the wire temperatures, structural, optical, and photo‐electrochemical properties are systematically investigated to verify the improved PEC activity. Furthermore, the density functional theory (DFT) study provides a comprehensive insight not only into the highly efficient mechanism of the HWA approach but also its favorably low‐energy‐barrier hydrogenation pathway. The findings will have a profound impact on the broad energy applications of H–TiO2 and contribute to the fundamental understanding of its hydrogenation.

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Plasma nitriding treatments are approved to reduce wear occurring in the field of hot forging applications. But there are demands for a further optimization of the processes in order to achieve adapted properties for differently loaded forging tools. This work presents the influence of main process parameters on the wear behavior of dies. The focused steel material of this work is DIN-X38CrMoV5-1 (1.2343), a standard hot forming tool steel. The influence of nitriding parameters like temperature, nitrogen flow and time on the nitriding depth, hardness and crack sensitivity has been investigated. Comparative application tests show the influence of different surface treatments on the wear behavior and lifetime of forging tools in an industrial environment