Natural mineral rutile (TiO2) was studied as anode for photoelectrolysis of water. Both its photoelectrochemical behavior and semiconducting properties are examined in comparison with those of Fe-doped synthetic single crystal TiO2, the latter independently studied to simulate the high impurity content existent in the mineral. The natural and synthetic Fe-doped TiO2 electrodes showed a performance comparable to that of arc-plasma sprayed raw rutile, including a low breakdown potential. Flatband potentials and donor densities were determined from Mott-Schottky plots and evidence for deep and shallow donors is discussed. Photoresponse measurements allowed us to verify the influence of the iron impurities on the performance of such electrodes.The photoelectrolysis of water has been investigated by several authors (1-7) in the last few years. Electrodes of polyerystalline TiO2 made by hot-pressing powdered rutile (2), by oxidation of metal foils (2-4), and by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) (5, 6) show a behavior similar to that of single crystal TiO., ( 7) and have the advantage of being easier to prepare. Until now, little attention has been paid to the semiconductor properties of natural TiO2 rutile crystals, perhaps because these minerals are usually impure (8). However, it has been recently shown that impure polycrystalline TiO2 electrodes, prepared by arcplasma sprayed raw rutile powder (9), behave similarly to other polycrystalline ones with respect to photoeleetrolysis. In the present paper we report the photoelectrochemical behavior of electrodes made either of single crystal or polycrystalline natural TiO2, obtained from mines located in different regions of Brazil. These electrodes showed a performance comparable to that of synthetic single crystal or other polycrystalline TiO2 electrodes. The results demonstrate the possibility of using low cost raw materials in primitive form for photoelectrolysis of water.Since large amounts of iron impurities were detected by x-ray analysis in the mineral samples, their effect on the performance of the photoelectrolytic cell is discussed by comparing the behavior of the natural futile electrodes with that of two intentionally Fe-doped TiO2 synthetic single crystal electrodes.
Experimental ProcedureSample characterization and heat-treatments.--Sam-* Electrochemical Society Student Member. ** Electrochemical Society Active Member.