Electrochemically Assisted Photocatalytic Oxidation of Methanol on TiO2 Nanotube Arrays

The influence of an externally applied bias on photocatalytic performance of crystallized TiO2/Ti nanotubular electrode formed by anodization in fluoride-based electrolyte were investigated and compared to the behavior of multiporous TiO2 electrode. The photoelectrocatalytic oxidation behavior of methanol over the nanotubular electrode has been studied by measuring photocurrent response, potentiodynamic polarization spectroscopy and using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). It was found that the photoelectrocatalytic oxidation and the charge transfer rate constant of reaction on TiO2/Ti nanotubular electrode can significantly be increased by applying electrochemical bias. Moreover, based on the results, it was found that the nanotubular TiO2 electrodes have considerably better performance in comparison with porous samples in photoelectrocatalytic performance.