Nanostructured carbon substrate improves the photoelectrochemical water splitting activity of cluster-assembled TiO2 thin films

By Luca Giacomo Bettini and Flavio Della Foglia and Paolo Milani and Paolo Piseri
Published in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy NULL 2015

Abstract

The supersonic cluster beam deposition (SCBD) of titanium oxide nanoparticles is a versatile and effective bottom-up approach for the fabrication of nanostructured titanium dioxide (ns-TiO2) thin films; here we report on its application to the production of photoelectrodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting. The use of a cluster-assembled carbon (ns-C) thin film deposited by \SCBD\ as a substrate layer for the titania nanoparticles deposition is also investigated and demonstrated to originate C:TiO2 nanocomposite photoelectrodes with increased surface roughness and more than four-fold enhanced \IPCE\ (ca. 4.5% under monochromatic illumination at 330

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