PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITY AND PHOTOCURRENT PROPERTIES OF TiO2 NANOTUBE ARRAYS INFLUENCED BY CALCINATION TEMPERATURE AND TUBE LENGTH

In this article, titanium oxide nanotube arrays (TiO2–NTAs) were fabricated by anodic oxidation in an ethylene glycol (EG) electrolyte solution containing 0.25 wt.% NH4F. By varying anodized time and annealed temperature, the obtained nanotube arrays behaved different photocatalytic (PC) activities and photocurrent properties. These samples were characterized by scanning electronic microscope (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). It was indicated in SEM images that TiO2 nanotube manifests highly ordered structure which, however, has been completely destroyed when the temperature comes to 800°C. XRD manifested that TiO2 nanotubes with various kinds of length all possessed anatase crystallite when annealed at 500°C; meanwhile, with certain length, TiO2–NTAs annealed at series calcination temperature range of 300–600°C also presented anatase crystallite, which is gradually enhanced with the increment of temperature. At 700°C, mixed structure was observed which was made up of proportions of overwhelming anatase and toothful rutile. Methyl blue (MB) degradation and photocurrent measurement testified that TiO2–NTAs under 4 h oxidation and 3 h of 600°C calcination manifested the highest activity and photocurrent density.