Controlled fabrication of Sn/TiO(2) nanorods for photoelectrochemical water splitting

In this work, we investigate the controlled fabrication of Sn-doped TiO(2) nanorods (Sn/TiO(2) NRs) for photoelectrochemical water splitting. Sn is incorporated into the rutile TiO(2) nanorods with Sn/Ti molar ratios ranging from 0% to 3% by a simple solvothermal synthesis method. The obtained Sn/TiO(2) NRs are single crystalline with a rutile structure. The concentration of Sn in the final nanorods can be well controlled by adjusting the molar ratio of the precursors. Photoelectrochemical experiments are conducted to explore the photocatalytic activity of Sn/TiO(2) NRs with different doping levels. Under the illumination of solar simulator with the light intensity of 100 mW/cm(2), our measurements reveal that the photocurrent increases with increasing doping level and reaches the maximum value of 1.01 mA/cm(2) at −0.4 V versus Ag/AgCl, which corresponds to up to about 50% enhancement compared with the pristine TiO(2) NRs. The Mott-Schottky plots indicate that incorporation of Sn into TiO(2) nanorod can significantly increase the charge carrier density, leading to enhanced conductivity of the nanorod. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Sn/TiO(2) NRs can be a promising candidate for photoanode in photoelectrochemical water splitting because of their excellent chemical stability.