Towards energy level cascaded “quantum armours” combating metal corrosion

Spontaneous polarization of ferroelectric heterostructured nanorod arrays for high-performance photoelectrochemical cathodic protection

“…As shown in Figure 2a, neatly arranged TNRs are vertically grown on the substrate with a diameter of ~150 nm, and the cross-section image (Figure 2d) of the TNRs exhibits that the is 2.5 ± 0.05 nanorods are almost vertical to the substrate, which agrees with the previous report. [30] After the formation of the BTO nanolayer via situ ion-exchange method (Figure 2b, e), the morphology (especially thickness and length of nanorods)…”

“…As for the TiO2/BTO contact interface, charge transfer from TiO2 to BTO until Ef reaches dynamic equilibrium. This causes the VB (2.31 V vs. the normal hydrogen electrode, NHE) and CB (-0.83 V vs. NHE) [63] of BTO in the TiO2/BTO interface to bend downward, while the VB (2.94 V vs. NHE) and CB (-0.16 V vs. NHE) [30] of Rutile TiO2 bend upward. Rutile TiO2 has a positive charge at this contact surface, and BTO has a negative charge, thus creating the IEF in TiO2/BTO interface.…”