Iron-doped Pt-TiO2 nanotubes for photo-catalytic water splitting

In this work we report on the photo-catalytic performance of phase-pure and iron-doped anatase and rutile nanotubes, produced via a sol-gel process using pristine carbon nanotubes as templates. The encapsulated iron residues can be used to in situ dope the TiO2 nanotubes without phase separation. The anatase and rutile nanotubes were further impregnated with platinum crystals with a uniform dispersion and an average size of similar to 2 nm. The materials showed dramatically improved activities for the photo-catalytic splitting of water compared to commercial TiO2 with similar surface area (up to two orders of magnitudes), due to their higher illumination area, extended absorption range and reduced electron-hole recombination rate. The homogeneous dispersion of platinum nanoparticles further increased the hydrogen evolution rate for anatase nanotubes by a factor of seven in comparison to that for the pristine material, thus proving the great potential for commercial applications.