Visualization of facet-dependent pseudo-photocatalytic behavior of TiO2 nanorods for water splitting using In situ liquid cell TEM
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Yin, ZW; Betzler, SB; Sheng, T; Zhang, Q; Peng, X; Shangguan, J; Bustillo, KC; Li, JT; Sun, SG; Zheng, H
- Source
- Subject
- Facet-dependent behavior
In situ TEM
Nanotechnology
Materials Engineering
Photocatalysis
Water splitting
Liquid cell TEM
Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry
- Language
We report an investigation of the pseudo-photocatalytic behavior of rutile TiO2 nanorods for water splitting observed with liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The electron beam serves as a “light” source to initiate the catalytic reaction and a “water-in-salt” aqueous solution is employed as the electrolyte. The observation reveals that bubbles are generated preferentially residing near the {110} facet of a rutile TiO2 nanorod under a low electron dose rate (9.3–18.6 e-/Å2·s). These bubbles are ascribed to hydrogen gas generated from the pseudo-photocatalytic water splitting. As the electron beam current density increases to 93 e-/Å2 ·s, bubbles are also found at the {001} and {111} facets as well as in the bulk liquid solution, demonstrating the dominant effects of water electrolysis by electron beam under higher dose rates. The facet-dependent pseudo-photocatalytic behavior of rutile TiO2 nanorods is further validated using density functional theory (DFT)calculation. Our work establishes a facile liquid cell TEM setup for the study of pseudo-photocatalytic water splitting and it may also be applied to investigation of other photo-activated phenomena occurring at the solid-liquid interfaces.