Fabrication of Porous Titanium Dioxide Film by Oxidization of Titanium Foil and its Photocatalytic Performance for Degradation of Methyl Orange

Abstract

Porous titanium dioxide film is an important photocatalyst. To bridge the gap between the application and traditional preparation of porous TiO2 film, an approach was developed to achieve porous TiO2 film by oxidization. SEM and XRD were used to characterize the morphologies and crystalline structure. Photodegradation of methyl orange was performed to investigate the photovoltaic performance. The results reveal: (i) the film obtained by oxidization has irregular porous structure with many protuberances on its surface, pore diameter ranging from 20 to 300 nm, and an average thickness of 40 μm, while that fabricated by potential anodization was highlyordered with pore diameter of about 50 nm and thickness of about 6 μm; (ii) the former has anatase structure after being calcined, while the latter contains anatase and titanium; and (iii) the former has higher adsorption and photocatalytic activity than the latter.