@article{osuagwu_drastic_2021,
	title = {A drastic improvement in photocatalytic {H} $_{textrm{2}}$ production by {TiO} $_{textrm{2}}$ nanosheets grown directly on {Ta} $_{textrm{2}}$ {O} $_{textrm{5}}$ substrates},
	volume = {13},
	issn = {2040-3364, 2040-3372},
	url = {https://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=D1NR02413B},
	doi = {10.1039/D1NR02413B},
	abstract = {Herein we demonstrate that anatase TiO
              2
               nanosheets (NS) can be grown on a Ta
              2
              O
              5
               substrate. A Ta
              2
              O
              5
               back contact exhibit a 170-fold increase in photocatalytic H
              2
               production rate than that obtained by TiO
              2
               NSs grown normally on FTO substrate.
            
          , 
            
              Titanium dioxide (TiO
              2
              ) is the most frequently studied semiconducting material for photocatalytic water splitting. One of the favored forms of TiO
              2
              for photocatalytic applications is layers of erected single-crystalline anatase nanosheets (NSs), while the most frequently reported substrate used for its synthesis is a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO). Herein we demonstrate that anatase TiO
              2
              NS layers can be similarly grown on a Ta
              2
              O
              5
              substrate. We found that a Ta
              2
              O
              5
              back contact provides a remarkable improvement of the photocatalytic activity of the TiO
              2
              NSs in comparison to a FTO back contact. The TiO
              2
              NSs on Ta
              2
              O
              5
              exhibit a 170-fold increase in photocatalytic H
              2
              production rate than that obtained by TiO
              2
              NSs on FTO substrate. The proposed mechanism reveals that such a drastic enhancement of optimized TiO
              2
              NS arrays on the Ta
              2
              O
              5
              substrate is attributed to the blocking nature of Ta
              2
              O
              5
              for photo-generated electrons in the TiO
              2
              NSs.},
	language = {en},
	number = {29},
	urldate = {2024-05-21},
	journal = {Nanoscale},
	author = {Osuagwu, Benedict and Raza, Waseem and Tesler, Alexander B. and Schmuki, Patrik},
	year = {2021},
	pages = {12750--12756},
}