A study on the effect of low energy ion beam irradiation on Au/TiO2 system for its application in photoelectrochemical splitting of water

Nanostructured TiO2 thin films were deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate via sol-gel technique and were modified by plasmonic Au layer. The plasmonic Au modified TiO2 (Au/TiO2) thin films were then irradiated with 500 keV Ar2+ ion beam at different ion fluences viz. 1 × 1016, 3 × 1016 and 1 × 1017 to study the effect of nuclear energy deposition on the morphology, crystallinity, band gap, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak exhibited by Au particles and photoelectrochemical properties of the system. Prepared thin films were characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) measurements and UV-visible spectroscopy. The photoelectrochemical measurements revealed that both Au/TiO2 and Au/TiO2 thin film irradiated at 1 × 1016 fluence exhibits enhanced photoelectrochemical response in comparison to pristine TiO2. The film irradiated at 1 × 1016 fluence offered maximum applied bias photon-to-current efficiency (ABPE) and shows 6 times increment in photocurrent density which was attributed to more negative flat band potential, maximum decrease in band gap, high open circuit voltage (Voc) and reduced charge transfer resistance.