Fabrication of Boron-Doped TiO₂ Nanotube Array Electrode and Investigation of Its Photoelectrochemical Capability

Abstract

Boron-doped TiO 2 nanotube arrays were produced by forming a nanotube-like TiO 2 film in an anodization process on a Ti sheet, followed by chemical vapor deposition treatment using trimethyl borate as the boron source with N 2 as the carrier gas, and were characterized by ESEM, XPS, XRD, and UV-vis methods. The highly ordered vertically oriented nanotube arrays were obtained, and the nanotubes were open at the top end with an average diameter of approximately 80 nm. Analysis by XPS indicated that the introduced boron was probably incorporated into TiO 2 and that the chemical environmental surrounding boron might be Ti-B-O. The boron-doped sample with a mixture of anatase and rutile was identified by X-ray diffraction. A shift of the absorption edge to a lower energy in the spectrum of the UV-vis absorption was observed. Under both UV and 400-620 nm visible light irradiation, the B-doped TiO 2 nanotube array electrode exhibited a higher photoconversion efficiency than the non-doped one, a notable photoconversion efficiency of 31.5% was achieved under high-pressure mercury lamp irradiation, and a photoconversion efficiency of 15.1% on the B-doped electrode was obtained under λ > 290 nm light irradiation. The photoelectrocatalytic activity of the prepared electrode was evaluated using pentachlorophenol as a test substance under UV and visible light irradiation.

Photoeletrochemical generation of hydrogen over carbon-doped TiO2 photoanode

“…The trapping of electrons effectively increases the lifetime of holes. Non-metallic elements such as nitrogen [9,10], carbon [11,12], sulfur [13], boron [14], and fluorine [15] have been used to impregnate the structure of TiO 2 . It was found that the substitutional carbon dopant incorporated into TiO 2 drastically affected the electronic structure of the material and hence improved its photoactivity due to significant overlap between O 2s 2 2p 4 and the carbon states near the valence band edge [16].…”

Photocatalytic Performance and Degradation Mechanism of Aspirin by TiO2 through Response Surface Methodology

“…Among various photocatalysts, TiO 2 has been widely studied since Honda pioneered the water splitting of TiO 2 photoanodes in 1972 [16], which displays strong chemical stability, non-toxicity, low cost and several unique characteristics. Thus, this has been proven to be a promising technology for the decontamination of these refractory pollutants [17,18]. Li et al reported the C-N-S-TiO 2 electrode that was decorated with Pd exhibited enhanced PC degradation of aspirin [19].…”

Synthesis, characterization of Cu, N co-doped TiO2 microspheres with enhanced photocatalytic activities

“…Recent years, many researchers also pay attention to dope TiO 2 with non-metals such as S, N, P and B [16][17][18][19][20][21]. Among all the non-metalsdoped TiO 2 catalysts, N-doped TiO 2 had been intensively investigated.…”