Photoelectrochemical Properties and Photocatalytic Activity of Fluorine-Doped Plate-Like WO3 from Hydrothermal Radio-Frequency (RF) Sputtered Tungsten Thin Films
Abstract
Fluorine-doped tungsten oxide (WO3) plate-like films were synthesized by hydrothermal radio-frequency (RF) sputtered tungsten (W) thin films in HF solution. The crystal structure, composition and morphology of nitrogen fluorine (F) doped WO3 were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) techniques. The results indicate that fluorine can be doped successfully into WO3 plate-like films by hydrothermal synthesis in hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution. The F-doped WO3 samples show stronger absorption in the UV-Vis range and a red shift in the band gap transition. Incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) measurements carried out on photoelectrochemical cell with F-doped WO3 plate-like films as anodes demonstrate a significant increase of photoresponse in the visible region compared with undoped WO3. The photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation for newly synthesized F-doped WO3 plate-like films was investigated by degradation of methyl orange. The photocatalytic activity of F-doped WO3 plate-like films was 3-fold enhancement compared with pure WO3 samples.
