Electric field enhanced photocatalytic properties of TiO2 nanoparticles immobilized in porous silicon template

Facile synthesis of porous TiO2 nanospheres and their photocatalytic properties

“…Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), a direct wide band-gap (3.2 eV) semiconductor, is one of the most important functional transition-metal oxides due to its superior physical and chemical properties such as long-term stability against chemical corrosion and photocorrosion, strong oxidizing ability, facile preparation and low cost [21][22][23], which makes it widely used in photo-catalysis [24], high-performance hydrogen sensors [25], electro-chemical [26], dye-sensitized solar cell [27][28][29], and detoxification [30]. In recent years, considerable effort has been devoted to fabricating various TiO 2 nanostructures and morphologies, including TiO 2 spheres [31,32], nanorods [33], nanotubes [34,35], sheets [36], nanofibers [37], and other hierarchical nanostructures [38,39].…”

Photocatalysis Enhanced by External Fields

“…[50] Besides materials with good conductive properties,b and gap modulation and even semiconductor-metal transition can be achieved over typical TiO 2 -based photocatalysts under an applied electric field. [51] As shown in Figure 7d,all the orbital energy levels in the density of states (DOS) of TiO 2 gradually split and extend towards the low-energy region with an increase of electric field intensity.W hen an electric field of 0.25 eV is applied, the DOS of O2pa nd Ti 3d orbitals cross the Fermi level and the band gap of TiO 2 is reduced to zero, accompanied by the transformation from semiconductor to metal. Consequently,t he optical absorption of TiO 2 was significantly improved, and the absorption edges extended to the visible region when a0 .20 eV electric field was applied (Figure 7e).…”

Effect of TiO 2 coating on the surface condition and corona characteristics of positive DC conductors with particle matters

“…When an external electric field is applied to TiO 2 nanoparticles, the separation of electrons and holes is promoted, the recombination of electrons and holes is suppressed, and the photocatalytic process is improved [24, 25]. In 2011, Tank found through experiments that the electric field can promote the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of nano‐TiO 2 to methylene blue [26]. Ma et al.…”