Improved photoelectrocatalytic activity of anodic TiO 2 nanotubes by boron in situ doping coupled with geometrical optim
- PDF / 2,965,342 Bytes
- 16 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 94 Downloads / 213 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Improved photoelectrocatalytic activity of anodic TiO2 nanotubes by boron in situ doping coupled with geometrical optimization: Application of a potent photoanode in the purification of dye wastewater Rezgar Habibi 1 & Neda Gilani 2 & Javad Vahabzadeh Pasikhani 1 & Azadeh Ebrahimian Pirbazari 1 Received: 21 July 2020 / Revised: 14 September 2020 / Accepted: 17 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract A comparative study on the photoelectrocatalytic activity of anodic TiO2 nanotubes (TNTs) and boron-doped TiO2 nanotubes (BTNTs) was performed through fabricating them in two distinguished fluoride-containing electrolytes, namely NH4F and NH4BF4. Furthermore, by applying anodization voltage (in the range of 40–60 V) as a regulating factor, an analogy was drawn between morphologies, optical properties, photoelectrochemical features, and photoelectrocatalytic activities of both TNTs and BTNTs. The results revealed that using NH4BF4 not only led to the introduction of boron into TiO2 lattices but also resulted in shorter nanotubes owing to their less corrosive effect compared with NH4F. Furthermore, anodization voltage had a significant impact on the optical properties; with increasing the voltage to 60 V, a red shift occurred in the band edge of both TNTs (from 3.05 to 2.8 eV) and BTNTs (from 2.9 to 2.6 eV). Particularly, via anodization at 60 V in NH4BF4 instead of NH4F, the photocurrent density and photoconversion efficiency increased from 0.19 to 0.67 Ma cm−2 and from 0.12 to 0.270%, respectively. Moreover, methylene blue degradation tests showed that BTNTs had an outstanding photoelectrocatalytic activity in comparison to TNTs; in this regard, the sample synthesized at 60 V in NH4BF4 rather than NH4F enhanced PEC degradation efficiency from 79 to 100% under UV irradiation. Finally, the kinetics investigation confirmed that all photoelectrocatalytic reactions in both groups followed the first-order kinetics. Keywords Photoanode . Boron doped . Voltammetry . Photoelectrocatalytic degradation . Methylene blue . Surface area
Introduction The production of hazardous contaminants in both air and water, as a consequence of rapid industrial development, has become a worldwide concern. To cope with this problem, numerous strict rules and regulations are being enacted by governments. So far, many efforts have been made to find a practical solution for an economical wastewater treatment.
* Neda Gilani [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Fouman Faculty of Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, P. O. Box 43515-1155, Fouman 43516-66456, Iran
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Guilan, Rasht 41996-13776, Iran
Among the current methods for wastewater treatment, the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), particularly in the form of photocatalysis, are excellent alternatives. In this process, by applying a semiconductor and a suitable light source, myriad resistant organic contaminants can be eliminate
Data Loading...
