Physikalisch-Chemisches Institut, Justus Liebig University, Giessen Heinrich-Buff-Ring 58, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
ACS Nano. 2010 Jun 22;4(6):3147-54. doi: 10.1021/nn1004765.
This paper describes a systematic comparison of the photoelectrochemical properties of mesoporous TiO(2) films prepared by the two most prevalent templating methods: The use of preformed, crystalline nanoparticles is generally considered advantageous compared to the usage of molecular precursors such as TiCl(4), since the latter requires a separate heat treatment at elevated temperature to induce crystallization. However, our photoelectrochemical experiments clearly show that sol-gel derived mesoporous TiO(2) films cause an about 10 times higher efficiency for the water splitting reaction than their counterparts obtained from crystalline TiO(2) nanoparticles. This result indicates that for electrochemical applications the performance of nanoparticle-based metal oxide films might suffer from insufficient electronic connectivity.
本文系统比较了两种最常见的模板法制备的介孔 TiO(2)薄膜的光电化学性能：与 TiCl(4)等分子前体相比，使用预先形成的结晶纳米粒子通常被认为更有利，因为后者需要在高温下进行单独的热处理以诱导结晶。然而，我们的光电化学实验清楚地表明，溶胶-凝胶法制备的介孔 TiO(2)薄膜在水分解反应中的效率比由结晶 TiO(2)纳米粒子得到的薄膜高约 10 倍。这一结果表明，对于电化学应用，基于纳米粒子的金属氧化物薄膜的性能可能会受到电子连接不足的影响。
