Impact of aspect ratio on the photoanodic behaviour of titanium dioxide nanorods array

Abstract

We report herein the growth Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) nanorods on FTO substrate with different aspect ratio. It is observed that the photo anodic behaviour is highly influenced by the aspect ratio of as -grown TiO2 nanorods. Hydrolysis of TiCl4 leads to the formation of TiO2 nanorods on FTO substrate. Nanorods of different aspect ratio are obtained by varying the concentration (0.1M, 0.2M) of TiCl4. The XRD pattern confirms the formation of rutile, tetragonal TiO2 nanorods with high crystallinity. From the FESEM images, the length and width of the nanorods are observed. The aspect ratio is found to be 151 for low concentration TiO2 nanorod array (TR1) and 330 for high concentration TiO2 nanorod array (TR2). The specific surface area, porosity of the samples was calculated using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. Superior surface properties are noticed in the case of TiO2 nanorods with high aspect ratio. The photovoltaic activity of TiO2 nanorods with high aspect ratio is found to be relatively high as compared to those with low aspect ratio.