No abstract

Different amounts of Fe, Co, Ni and Cu-doped TiO2 thin films were prepared on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) coated soda-lime glass substrates by following a conventional sol-gel dip-coating technique followed by heat treatment at 550 and 600°C for 30 min. These thin films were characterized for photo-current, chronoamperometry and band-gap energy values. The chemical compositions of metals-doped TiO2 thin films on FTO glass substrates were confirmed by XPS spectroscopic study. The metal-ions doped TiO2 thin films had a thickness of <200 nm="" optical="" transparency="" of="">80%, band-gap energy of >3.6 eV, and a direct band-to-band energy transition. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) studies revealed that all the metal-ions doped TiO2 thin films exhibit n-type semi-conducting behavior with a quite stable chronoamperometry and photo-currents that increase with the increase of applied voltage but decrease with the dopant metal-ion concentration in the thin film. Furthermore, these thin films exhibited flat-band potentials amenable to water oxidation reaction in a PEC cell. The 0.5 wt.% Cu-doped TiO2 thin film electrode exhibited an highest incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of about 21%.