Photoelectrochemical water oxidation over TiO2 nanotubes modified with MoS2 and g-C3N4

Phuong Hoang Nguyen; Thi Minh Cao; Tho Truong Nguyen; Hien Duy Tong; Viet Van Pham

doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.127

Photoelectrochemical water oxidation over TiO₂ nanotubes modified with MoS₂ and g-C₃N₄

Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2022 Dec 16:13:1541-1550. doi: 10.3762/bjnano.13.127. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Phuong Hoang Nguyen¹, Thi Minh Cao¹, Tho Truong Nguyen¹, Hien Duy Tong², Viet Van Pham¹

Affiliations

¹ HUTECH University, 475A Dien Bien Phu Street, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam.
² Faculty of Engineering, Vietnamese-German University (VGU), Le Lai Street, Hoa Phu Ward, Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam.

Abstract

TiO₂ nanotube arrays (TNAs) have been studied for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. However, there are two major barriers of TNAs, including a low photo-response and the fast charge carrier recombination in TNAs, leading to poor photocatalytic efficiency. Through a comparison of MoS₂/TNAs and g-C₃N₄/TNAs, it was found that TNAs modified with MoS₂ and g-C₃N₄ exhibited a current density of, respectively, 210.6 and 139.6 μA·cm^-2 at an overpotential of 1.23 V vs RHE, which is 18.2 and 12 times higher than that of pure TNAs under the same conditions. The stability of the MoS₂/TNAs heterojunction is higher than that of g-C₃N₄/TNAs.

Keywords: MoS2/TiO2; band structure; g-C3N4/TiO2; photoelectrochemical; water splitting.