Study on the Preparation and Characterizations of an Improved Porous Ti/TiO2/CdS‐CNT/C3N4 Photoelectrode and Photoelectric Catalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue

Abstract The porous Ti/TiO 2 /CdS‐CNT/C 3 N 4 photoelectrode were successfully fabricated via anodic oxidation method, chemical electrodeposition and dip‐coating method, respectively. The morphology, crystal structure and elements of the photoelectrodes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), energy‐dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) respectively. The cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), linear sweep voltammograms curves (LSV), mott‐schottky (MS) and chronoamperometric curves were applied to research the oxidation‐reduction quality, resistance, carriers concentration and photocurrent stability respectively. Addtionally, the service lifetime of electrodes were measured in accelerated life test. The photo‐ electrocatalytic (PEC) performance of the photoelectrodes were evaluated in the degradation experiment of methylene blue. Compared with the Ti/TiO 2 and Ti/TiO 2 /CdS‐CNT electrode, the Ti/TiO 2 /CdS‐CNT/C 3 N 4 electrode possesses smaller grain size on the surface, more uniform crystal morphology, lower resistance, bigger photocurrent density, oxygen evolution potential and photogenerated carriers concentration and performed higher PEC activity. Moreover, the generation of much holes, H 2 O 2 , and ⋅OH can promote the PEC degradation of organic pollutants. Particularly, C 3 N 4 can further increase ⋅OH generation capacity.