Photocatalytic behaviour of anodised titanium using different cathodes

Abstract

In the last decades, titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been widely researched because of its applications in photocatalytic environmental pollution removal and in hydrogen generation. Hence, this work deals with the synthesis of titanium dioxide by anodising titanium sheets, however using different cathodes, which may induce differences in the composition and structure of the obtained oxide layers so that these suspected differences can be observed. All specimens were equally thermally treated after anodising to enhance their photocatalytic activity, since this step allows the titanium dioxide to crystallise. Their morphology and crystal structure were characterised by X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared, and optical properties were characterised by ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy. Furthermore, tests of their photocatalytic properties in the degradation of organic dyes were performed in order to have a first evaluation. Indeed, differences in the photocatalytic behaviour of the anodised specimens using different cathodes were found and evaluated. © 2018, © 2018 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Institute.