Journal
NANOSCALE
Volume 2, Issue 9, Pages 1690-1698Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c0nr00140f
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Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [HOPE CSD2007-00007, MAT2009-14004]
- Generalitat Valenciana [GVPRE/2008/198]
- US Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-AC02-98CH10886]
- Royal Society
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The photoelectrochemical behaviour of anatase thin films with different nanoarchitectures and the same active surface area (or thickness) has been studied in acidic media in the absence and in the presence of formic acid. The electrodes were composed of either wire-like nanocrystal aggregates or commercial TiO2 nanoparticles. Cyclic voltammetry in the dark reveals a larger trap concentration in the band gap for the nanoparticulate (NP) electrodes, which can be ascribed to a larger number of intergrain boundaries. Also under illumination, the behaviour for both types of anatase structures significantly differs: water photooxidation arises at more negative potentials for the nanocolumnar (NC) electrodes. In the presence of an efficient hole acceptor such as HCOOH, significantly larger photocurrents were noted for the NC films as compared with those for the NP electrodes, with the photocurrent onset also shifted towards more positive potentials for the latter. These results point to a diminished electron recombination, which can be related with a smaller concentration of intergrain boundaries, together with a more efficient HCOOH hole transfer for the wire-like nanocrystal aggregate architecture. In addition, the oxygen reduction reaction is also favoured in the case of NC electrodes.
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