Interfacial co-existence of oxygen and titanium vacancies in nanostructured TiO2 for enhancement of carrier transport

Yi Lu; Yi-Xuan Liu; Li He; Li-Ying Wang; Xiao-Long Liu; Jia-Wen Liu; Yuan-Zhou Li; Ge Tian; Heng Zhao; Xiao-Hang Yang; Jie Liu; Christoph Janiak; Silvia Lenaerts; Xiao-Yu Yang; Bao-Lian Su

doi:10.1039/D0NR01180K

Interfacial co-existence of oxygen and titanium vacancies in nanostructured TiO₂ for enhancement of carrier transport†

Yi Lu,

^ab Yi-Xuan Liu,^a Li He,^a Li-Ying Wang,^c Xiao-Long Liu,

^b Jia-Wen Liu,^a Yuan-Zhou Li,^a Ge Tian,*^ad Heng Zhao,^a Xiao-Hang Yang,^e Jie Liu,^a Christoph Janiak,

^f Silvia Lenaerts,^g Xiao-Yu Yang

*^abd and Bao-Lian Su

*^ah

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing & School of materials science and engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
E-mail: xyyang@whut.edu.cn

^b Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai) & School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, School of Materials, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China

^c State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China

^d School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
E-mail: xyyang@seas.harvard.edu, gtian@seas.harvard.edu

^e College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, China

^f Institut für Anorganische Chemie und Strukturchemie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, 40204 Düsseldorf, Germany

^g Research Group of Sustainable Energy and Air Purification (DuEL), Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

^h Laboratory of Inorganic Materials Chemistry (CMI), University of Namur, B-5000 Namur, Belgium
E-mail: bao-lian.su@unamur.be

Abstract

The interfacial co-existence of oxygen and metal vacancies in metal oxide semiconductors and their highly efficient carrier transport have rarely been reported. This work reports on the co-existence of oxygen and titanium vacancies at the interface between TiO₂ and rGO via a simple two-step calcination treatment. Experimental measurements show that the oxygen and titanium vacancies are formed under 550 °C/Ar and 350 °C/air calcination conditions, respectively. These oxygen and titanium vacancies significantly enhance the transport of interfacial carriers, and thus greatly improve the photocurrent performances, the apparent quantum yield, and photocatalysis such as photocatalytic H₂ production from water-splitting, photocatalytic CO₂ reduction and photo-electrochemical anticorrosion of metals. A new “interfacial co-existence of oxygen and titanium vacancies” phenomenon, and its characteristics and mechanism are proposed at the atomic-/nanoscale to clarify the generation of oxygen and titanium vacancies as well as the interfacial carrier transport.

Nanoscale

Interfacial co-existence of oxygen and titanium vacancies in nanostructured TiO₂ for enhancement of carrier transport†

Abstract

Supplementary files

Article information

Download Citation

Permissions

Interfacial co-existence of oxygen and titanium vacancies in nanostructured TiO₂ for enhancement of carrier transport

Social activity

Search articles by author

Spotlight

Advertisements

Nanoscale