Fluorine-doped porous single-crystal rutile TiO₂ nanorods for enhancing photoelectrochemical water splitting

Fluorine-doped hierarchical porous single-crystal rutile TiO₂ nanorods have been synthesized through a silica template method, in which F ^- ions acts as both n-type dopants and capping agents to make the isotropic growth of the nanorods. The combination of high crystallinity, abundant surface reactive sites, large porosity, and improved electronic conductivity leads to an excellent photoelectrochemical activity. The photoanode made of F-doped porous single crystals displays a remarkably enhanced solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency (≈0.35% at -0.33 V vs. Ag/AgCl) under 100 mWcm^-2 of AM=1.5 solar simulator illumination that is ten times of the pristine solid TiO₂ single crystals. Who loves the sun? F-doped porous single-crystal rutile TiO₂ nanorods were fabricated by using a silica template method. The photoanode made of F-doped porous rutile nanorods exhibits a significantly enhanced solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency ≈0.35% at -0.33 V vs. Ag/AgCl) due to the abundant surface reactive sites and the improved bulk electronic conductivity (see figure).