| Ti O2 nanofiber-based material with excellent photocatalytic performance, high stability, non-toxic and pollution-free, wide range of sources and other characteristics, which is widely used in biology, medicine, environmental remediation,catalysis,energy storage and conversion and other fields. In recent years, the design and synthesis of Ti O2 nano- composites for the application of water splitting has become a hot topic in materials science. Herein,self-standing Ti O2 nanoribbon membrane was employed as a versatile scaffold to build two noval Ti O2 photocatalytic nanocomposite macroscopic materials. The result were briefly described as follows:1. Preparation of a nanotubular framework with customized conductivity and porosity:we engineer a quaternary inorganic framework consisting of Ni0 and Ni(OH)2 species, graphite–like C, and titanate nanotubes(referred to as Nix/C/TNTs framework) can meet both criteria and deliver activities towards the two half reactions of water splitting. Each of the quaternary components specifically contributes to the performance of the framework as an overall water–splitting electrode:(1) the TNTs spontaneously organize into a giant framework to endow the system with five levels of interconnected pores;(2) the Ni0 and Ni(OH)2 species offer the binary active sites for HER and OER, respectively;(3) the graphite–like C behaves as “conductive cement” to transform Nix/C/TNTs framework into an efficient electron percolation network and bridge the framework and the underlying Ni foam backbone. As a consequence, the framework exhibits performances comparable to Pt/C in HER and to Ir O2/C in OER and has a good prospect in the production of hydrogen fuel via water splitting. Further, since titanate has the merit for topotactic transformation into photoelectrochemically active Ti O2, the derived Nix/C/Ti O2 framework should enable the development of more efficient and more economical water–splitting devices, which may utilize electricity and solar light as the combined driving forces.2. By taking advantage of a free-standing film consisting of millimeter-scale and 3D interconnected Ti O2 nanowire as the growth platform, we have successfully fabricated the laminated Bi OX-Ag-Ti O2 film as an efficient photoanode. In the multi-component system, Ag nanoparticles densely coated on the broad and flat surfaces of Ti O2 nanowires increase the conductivity of Ti O2 by 107 and enable the film to propagate electrons rapidly. Bi OX nanoplates with increased surface area are obliquely grown on the Ag-coated Ti O2 nanowires, which move the absorption edge of the film into the region of visible light and endow the film with the anti-reflection property. Especially, when the Bi OCl-Ag-Ti O2, Bi OBr-Ag-Ti O2, and Bi OI-Ag-Ti O2 films are sequentially overlapped to form a laminated film, the anti-reflection response is further promoted. Besides the above metrics, the band alignment in the multi-component system favors the directed flow of photogenerated electrons from Bi OX and Ti O2 to Ag, which efficiently inhibits the recombination of the e––h+ pairs. Therefore, under the illumination of simulated solar light, the photoanode fabricated by the laminated Bi OX-Ag-Ti O2 film could yield a small onset potential around 0.7 V vs RHE and a large photocurrent approaching 10 m A/cm2 at 1.2 V vs RHE, which outperforms the state-of-the-art photoanode based on Ir O2-modified hematite nanorods arrays. |
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