Enhanced photocatalytic properties of band structure engineered Pd/TiO_2 via sequential doping

摘要

Band structure engineering is an essential and promising approach for altering photocatalytic properties of TiO2 for enhanced H-2 production and dye degradation reactions. Given this, we propose the fluorine incorporation strategy to the Pd decorated TiO2, via the sequential doping process, using hydrogen and fluorine exhibiting a record photocurrent of similar to 2 mA cm(-2) (at 1.23 V vs RHE under 1 sun condition), and enhanced rhodamine B degradation. The physicochemical origin of increased photocatalytic activity is ascribed to the effective fluorine doping into the TiO2 lattice via O-vacancies, and to the resulting modified band electronic structure that gen-erates high energy carriers. Furthermore, an insight into the properties of sequential doped Pd loaded TiO2 nanorod (Pd/F:TiO2-x NR), under the scheme of F-Ti3+ gap, states that mediated photocatalysis is provided with Ti-F bonding. Importantly, nanoscale imaging is used to monitor the direct charge at the surface of doped TiO2, which revealed valuable insights for the enhanced photocatalytic activity of TiO2.