Abstract
When used as a photocatalyst, titanium dioxide (TiO 2) absorbs only ultraviolet light, and several approaches, including the use of dopants such as nitrogen, have been taken to narrow the band gap of TiO 2. We demonstrated a conceptually different approach to enhancing solar absorption by introducing disorder in the surface layers of nanophase TiO 2 through hydrogenation. We showed that disorder-engineered TiO 2 nanocrystals exhibit substantial solar-driven photocatalytic activities, including the photo-oxidation of organic molecules in water and the production of hydrogen with the use of a sacrificial reagent.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 746-750 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Science |
| Volume | 331 |
| Issue number | 6018 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 20 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: We thank M. S. Dresselhaus for encouragement, M. T. Lee and S. H. Shen for their assistance, and R. Greif for discussions and critical reading of the manuscript. This research has been supported by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy. S.S.M. and X.C. also acknowledge support from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology–University of California Academic Excellence Alliance. TEM work was performed at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, which is supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.