0000000000267387
AUTHOR
S. Miraghaei
Qualitative Models for the Photoresponse and Capacitance of Annealed Titania Nanotubes
Physicochemical characterization of annealed TiO2 nanotubes (TNTs) was conducted by using photocurrent spectroscopy and differential capacitance techniques. It has been shown that the geometry and architecture of nanotubes determine how photogenerated electrons and holes are separated and transferred. Photocurrent generation in TNTs is a consequence of two phenomena; drifting of holes into the electrolyte and diffusion of electrons toward the substrate. These two processes have been shown to be independent of the anodic polarization. The capacitance of TiO2 nanotubes is also affected by their geometry. In anodic potentials, with respect to the flat band potential of the underlying barrier l…
Red Shift in the Light Absorption Threshold of Anodic TiO2 Films Induced by Nitrogen Incorporation
Abstract Titanium foils were anodized in ammonium containing and ammonium free solutions in order to check the possibility of inducing nitrogen incorporation into anodic TiO 2 films. XPS spectra confirmed the presence of O-Ti-N bonds on the surface of the anodic films prepared in ammonium biborate electrolytes. In order to evidence the effect of nitrogen incorporation on the light absorption threshold, photoelectrochemical behavior of as-anodized and high temperature annealed films as a function of the anodizing electrolyte composition were investigated. A photocurrent tail at energies lower than the mobility gap of TiO 2 appeared for those films prepared in ammonium containing electrolytes…
The Amorphous Semiconductor Schottky Barrier Approach to Study the Electronic Properties of Anodic Films on Ti
A detailed study of the electronic properties of thin (>20 nm) anodic TiO2 potentiostatically grown on titanium in two different solutions is presented. The results show that the nature of the anodizing solution affects the electronic properties of the anodic film and, more specifically, the density of electronic states (DOS) distribution. Different DOS were derived from the experimental data analyzed according to the theory of amorphous semiconductor (a-SC) Schottky barrier. It is shown that the usual non-linear and frequency dependent Mott-Schottky plots are in agreement with expected theoretical behavior of a-SC Schottky barrier.
Multiscale Approach in Studying the Influence of Annealing Conditions on Conductivity of TiO2 Nanotubes
Titanium oxide nanotubes (NTs) have attracted much attention during last decade due to their special characteristics such as one-dimensional highly ordered geometry with large surface area and good chemical and optical stability.
Assessment on the use of the amorphous semiconductor theory for the analysis of oxide films
Abstract Although the theory of Schottky barrier in amorphous semiconductors is generally accepted, the limits of validity of such theory have not yet been explored. The classic semi-analytical solution is obtained under the constraint of constant electronic density of states (DOS) distribution in the mobility gap. In order to take into account the presence of a DOS variable in energy, a semi-empirical corrective power law was introduced in this paper. It is shown that the equations derived for thick films maintain their validity also in the case of thin films, provided that the space charge region width remains lower than 70% of the whole film thickness. A new expression based on the use o…
Influence of Anodic and Thermal Barrier Layers on Physicochemical Behavior of Anodic TiO2 Nanotubes
Electrochemical and photo-electrochemical behavior of self-organized TiO2 nanotubes formed in organic solvents have been studied by taking into account the formation of new barrier layers beneath nanotubes either due to the anodic polarization in aqueous solutions or air exposure during high temperature annealing. It has been shown that before annealing, electrochemical and photoelectrochemical answers are dominantly controlled by the physicochemical properties of the anodic barrier layer. Annealing in air at sufficiently high temperatures changes the initial amorphous structure of as-prepared nanotubes and forms a new oxide layer below them due to thermal oxidation of underneath titanium. …