Fast and large-scale anodizing synthesis of pine-cone TiO2 for solar-driven photocatalysis

Abstract

Anodization has been widely used to synthesize nanostructured TiO2 films with promising photocatalytic performance for solar hydrogen production and pollution removal. However, it usually takes a few hours to obtain the right nanostructures even on a small scale (e.g., 10 mm × 20 mm). In order to attract interest for industrial applications, fast and large-scale fabrication is highly desirable. Herein, we demonstrate a fast and large-scale (e.g., 300 mm × 360 mm) synthesis of pine-cone TiO2 nanostructures within two min. The formation mechanism of pine-cone TiO2 is proposed. The pine-cone TiO2 possesses a strong solar absorption, and exhibits high photocatalytic activities in photo-oxidizing organic pollutants in wastewater and producing hydrogen from water under natural sunlight. Thus, this study demonstrates a promising method for fabricating TiO2 films towards practical photocatalytic applications.