Ion Implantation and Annealing for an Efficient N-Doping of TiO₂ Nanotubes

Abstract

Self-organized anodic titania nanotube layers were doped with nitrogen successfully using ion implantation. Photoelectrochemical measurements combined with XRD measurements show that the damage created by ion bombardment (that leads to a drastic decrease of the photoconversion efficiency) can be “annealed out” by an adequate heat treatment. This results in a N-doped crystalline anatase nanotube structure with strongly enhanced photocurrent response in both the UV and the visible range.

Formation of porous anodic titanium oxide films in hot phosphate/glycerol electrolyte

“…Self-organized porous anodic titanium oxide films have attracted much attention mainly due to their wide potential applications, including dye-sensitized solar cells [1][2][3], photocatalysis [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11], self-cleaning, electrochromism, sensors [12][13][14] and biomedical application [15]. The porous anodic titanium oxide films, usually with nanotubular structures, are formed in fluoride-containing 3 electrolytes [16,17].…”

Solvothermal synthesis of N-doped TiO2 nanotubes for visible-light-responsive photocatalysis

“…4,6,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Motivated by the recent progress in narrowing the electronic band gap of TiO 2 by anion doping, 17 N-doped TiO 2 nanotubes (N-TDNTs) have been explored for visible-light-driven photocatalysis. [9][10][11]13,14 routes; however, the as-prepared TDNTs are predominately amorphous TiO 2 that show low photocatalytic activity and such materials are also prone to collapse during the annealing process. 22 Consequently, additional crystallization is always required for those TDNTs since their photocatlytic performance is closely related to crystallinity.…”

“…22 Consequently, additional crystallization is always required for those TDNTs since their photocatlytic performance is closely related to crystallinity. 2,18,20 Although bulk materials of N-doped TiO 2 have been extensively investigated for visible-light photocatalysis, [9][10][11]13,14,17 the feasible nitridization of TDNTs for syntheses of N-TDNTs is still a critical challenge. The most widespread nitriding route centres on ammonolysis of TDNTs in flowing ammonia gas at high temperature, but this process drastically damages the TDNTs due to sintering and collapse.…”

Synthesis and Catalytic Applications of Non-Metal Doped Mesoporous Titania

“…Hydrogen, boron, carbon, nitrogen, fluorine, iodine, sulfur, and phosphorus have been used in this capacity, but nitrogen has been studied most extensively. Until now, various approaches to incorporate nitrogen atoms into titania have been reported, such as doping during film sputtering [131], annealing under ammonia gas [12], ion implantation [132,133], hydrazine treatment [134][135][136], urea treatment [137][138][139], treatment of sol-gel titania with nitrogen-containing organics [140], electrochemical processing [141], chemical vapor deposition [142], and plasma techniques [11,13,35,[143][144][145][146][147][148][149][150]. Most of the above doping methods require high temperature treatment and complicated or expensive equipment.…”