The photoelectrical performance of anodized titanium sheets

Anodization is a widely used method to obtain multicolored oxidized
titanium sheets. However, most researchers paid great attention to the
color related properties of
TiO2 nanotube instead of photoelectrical
properties of titanium oxide film. In this work, to study their
photoelectrical properties, a series of multicolored oxidized titanium
sheets were prepared by anodization method, and UV-Vis absorption and
photocurrents were tested. The anodized titanium sheets not only can be
used as decoration material such as Jewelry, but also are supposed to be
used as photoelectrical catalyst. The relationship between
anodization voltages/anodization durations and
photocurrents of titanium sheets was studied. Results show that titanium
sheets have excellent photoelectrical performance. With the
increase of anodization voltage, number of UV-Vis absorption peaks
increased under visible light which means increasing absorption. When
anodization duration increased, absorption band edge also increased in
visible light region, which means band gap needed to produce charge
transfer transition decreased. Under simulated sunlight and applied
voltage of +0.4V, photocurrent increased with the increase of
either anodization voltage or anodization duration, and can be
expressed by linear equations respectively. In
addition, anodization currents were recorded during anodization.
Morphology, crystal structure and photoelectrical properties of anodized
titanium sheets were characterized.