Structure and photocatalytic properties of sintered TiO2 nanotube arrays
Abstract
One-dimensional (1D) TiO2 nanotubes perpendicular to the substrate were obtained by electrochemical oxidation of titanium foil in an acid electrolyte. In order to alter the crystallinity and the morphology of films the as-anodized amorphous TiO2 nanotube films were sintered at elevated temperatures. The evolution of the morphology was visualized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while the crystalline structure was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. The chemical composition was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The effects of crystallinity and morphology of TiO2 nanotube (NTs) films on photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO) in an aqueous solution under UV light irradiation were also investigated. The TiO2 nanotubes sintered at 650 °C for 30 min had the highest degree of crystallinity and exhibited the best photocatalytic activity among the studied TiO2 nanotube films.
Copyright
Authors retain copyright of the published article and have the right to use the article in the ways permitted to third parties under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Full bibliographic information (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages) about the original publication must be provided and a link must be made to the article's DOI. This license allows to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, remix, transform, and build upon it for any purpose, even commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), a link to the license is provided and it is indicated if changes were made.