The effect of electrolyte re-utilization in the growth rate and morphology of TiO2 nanotubes

In an industrial context, the re-utilization of resources is very important to monetize processes, reducing the production costs without overlooking a proper performance of the devices. For specific applications such as dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC), a high-aspect-ratio configuration of the produced TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) is essential to achieve higher conversion efficiencies. In this work, we report the effect of electrolyte re-utilization in the diameter, length and morphology of TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) produced by electrochemical anodization. A detailed study of the bias voltage effect on the anodic NTs for new and re-utilized electrolytes was performed. Also, the possibility of obtaining NT arrays with ribs morphology just by re-using the electrolyte was unveiled.