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Facile fabrication, characterization, and enhanced photoelectrocatalytic degradation performance of highly oriented TiO2 nanotube arrays

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Abstract

Highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays were successfully fabricated using ethanol and water mixture electrolytes (40 vol% ethanol and 0.2 wt% hydrofluoric acid) by a facile electrochemical anodization method. The as-prepared nanotube arrays were grown perpendicular to the titanium substrate with about 90 nm in diameter, 20 nm in wall thickness, and around 500 nm in length. The formation mechanism of the samples is briefly discussed. A blue shift in the spectrum of UV–Vis absorption was observed with respect to a piece of the sol–gel derived TiO2 film. Moreover, photocurrent response and photoelectrocatalytic degradation of methyl orange under ultraviolet light irradiation were adopted to evaluate the photoelectrocatalytic properties of the TiO2 nanotube arrays. We demonstrate that the highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays possess much better photoelectrocatalytic activity than the sol–gel derived TiO2 film and good stability.

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Acknowledgements

The generous financial support by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 20677007, 20837001), National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program; No. 2007AA061402), Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 Program; No. 2007CB613302), and Ph.D. Program Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (No. 20070141060) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (MOE) and State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemical, School of Environmental and Biological Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, Liaoning, China

    Qidong Zhao, Xinyong Li, Ning Wang, Yang Hou & Xie Quan

  2. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Xinyong Li & Guohua Chen

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  1. Qidong Zhao
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  2. Xinyong Li
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Correspondence to Xinyong Li.

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Zhao, Q., Li, X., Wang, N. et al. Facile fabrication, characterization, and enhanced photoelectrocatalytic degradation performance of highly oriented TiO2 nanotube arrays. J Nanopart Res 11, 2153–2162 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-009-9685-z

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