Sunlight photocatalysis in coral-like TiO2 film

To improve the quantum efficiency of TiO2 film irradiated by sunlight, coral-like TiO2 film composed by nanorods and a nanonet structure was prepared by anodizing Ti in HF–Na2SiF6–FeCl3 solution. The coral-like TiO2 film revealed an improvement over the TiO2 nanotube under sunlight in both optical absorption and photocatalytic activity such as photodegradation of reactive brilliant red. Under sunlight irradiation, the photoelectrocatalytic degradation rate of a coral-like TiO2/Ti electrode (45.2%) was about four times higher than that of a nanotube TiO2/Ti electrode (11.9%) at 1.5 V potential application.