title: Effectiveness of nitrogen incorporation to enhance the photoelectrochemical activity of nanostructured TiO2:NH3 versus H2-N2 annealing.
abstract: Highly ordered TiO(2) nanohole layers were synthesized by anodic oxidation of titanium foils using ethylene glycol and ammonium fluoride as the electrolyte. The effectiveness of different methods, namely annealing at 500 °C in NH(3) and in H(2) diluted in N(2), to incorporate nitrogen into TiO(2) and thus extend its photoelectrochemical (PEC) activity to the visible range was studied. The intra-gap levels introduced by both processes were identified by means of XPS and PL measurements. Water splitting experiments demonstrated that annealing in H(2) improved the photocatalytic activity of pure TiO(2), while annealing in ammonia led to a decrease in the PEC performance.
authors.affiliation: M2E-XaRMAE, Departamento d'Electrònica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. cfabrega@el.ub.es
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fàbrega
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Andreu
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Güell
authors.forename: Joan Daniel
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Prades
authors.forename: Sònia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Estradé
authors.forename: Jose Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rebled
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Peiró
authors.forename: Joan Ramon
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Morante