Polydopamine inspired dual-functional templates to prepare photoanode with enhanced photoelectrochemical activity

In this work, we propose polydopamine inspired dual-functional template in the form of microspheres to prepare the TiO 2 photoanode for a photocatalytic fuel cell. This new type template can not only ensure easy control of porous structure , which enhances mass transport and light scattering, but also enable nitrogen doping into TiO 2 for visible-light response, which increases solar utilization. Because of these merits, the photoanode prepared by using this polydopamine inspired dual-functional template yields better photoelectrochemical activity. The newly-developed photoanode is also evaluated by incorporating it into a photocatalytic fuel cell in terms of electricity generation . Experimental results further confirm that the photocatalytic fuel cell with the photoanode prepared by using the polydopamine microspheres shows superior performance than does the one with conventional TiO 2 photoanode. Effects of the size of polydopamine microspheres and its ratio to TiO 2 are also studied. It is shown that the photoanode prepared by using 220-nm polydopamine microspheres at a ratio of 1:5 exhibits optimal performance. This study provides a new route to prepare high-performance photoanode.