Photoelectrochemical performance of smooth TiO2 nanotube arrays: Effect of anodization temperature and cleaning methods

Abstract

The formation of self-organized titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotube arrays without bundling or clustering is essential for their high efficiency in photoelectrochemical (PEC) application. The present paper reports on the use of different temperatures to control the specific architecture of nanotube arrays and effective cleaning techniques to ensure the formation of clean TiO2 nanotube surface. The wall thickness of nanotube arrays could be controlled from 12.5nm to 37.5nm through different anodization temperature ranging from 10C to 80C. Furthermore, ultrasonic cleaning combined with acetone showed the high-ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays without morphological disorder, bundling, and microcrack problems. Based on the results obtained, a higher PEC response of 1mA/cm2 and a photoconversion efficiency of 1.3 could be achieved using a wall thickness of 12.5nm and defect-free TiO2 nanotube arrays for low charge transfer resistance. © Copyright 2012 Chin Wei Lai and Srimala Sreekantan.