Preparation and enhanced photoelectrocatalytic properties of a three-dimensional TiO2-Au porous structure fabricated using superaligned carbon nanotube films

Three dimensional TiO2–Au cross-nanoporous structure (3D TiO2–Au CNS) as an efficient photoelectrocatalytic system was fabricated using superaligned carbon nanotube films as etching masks and electron-beam evaporation. The 3D TiO2–Au CNS exhibited a broad absorption band in the visible region, and the incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency of 3D TiO2–Au CNS/Ti electrode was 3–4 times higher than that of pure TiO2 electrode. The photocurrent density of the 3D TiO2–Au CNS device was 0.079 mA cm−2 at 0 V vs. Ag/AgCl with a solar irradiance of 100 mW cm−2. This developed preparation method was simple, of high flexibility and can be adopted for mass production due to its low cost and good compatibility with other processing technologies. The 3D TiO2–Au CNS and its preparation method have important value in design of photoelectrocatalytic system for research and practical applications, which may have a potential utility in photocatalytic and other photoelectrocatalytic reactions.