Solvothermal preparation of hydrangea-like CuBi2O4 twining TiO2 NTAs with enhanced photoelectrocatalytic dye degradation and hydrogen generation

Ternary oxide semiconductor could effectively adjust the energy band gap and location by changing the elemental ratio, which remarkably benefits the electron transfer and photoelectrocatalytic H 2 generation. In this paper, hydrangea-like CuBi 2 O 4 sensitizers were prepared on TiO 2 nanotube arrays (TiO 2 NTAs) by one-pot solvothermal deposition. The alkali kind showed vital influences on the microstructure and photoelectrocatalytic performance of CuBi 2 O 4 /TiO 2 NTAs, and the excellent pollutant remediation, photoelectric conversion and photoelectrocatalytic water splitting were achieved by the sample prepared by C 6 H 12 N 4 . Under visible light irradiation, the optimized sample displayed the higher photoelectrocatalytic H 2 generation rate (87.42 μmol·cm −2 ·h −1 ) than that of samples prepared using other alkali kinds. Moreover, the CuBi 2 O 4 /TiO 2 NTAs also exhibited high organic dye and Cr(VI) removal performance, and the outstanding photoelectrocatalytic activity indicates the novel strategy for the construction of CuBi 2 O 4 /TiO 2 NTAs photocatalyst for H 2 generation by effective photocatalytic water splitting .