Sub-10 nm Corrugated TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanowire Arrays by Monomicelle-Directed Assembly for Efficient Hole Extraction
Pengfei Zhang, Zhangliu Tian, Yikun Kang, Bowen He, Zaiwang Zhao, Chin‐Te Hung, Linlin Duan, Wei Chen, Yun Tang, Jiaguo Yu, Liqiang Mai, Yefei Li, Wei Li, Dongyuan Zhao
Abstract
Precise synthesis of well-ordered ultrathin nanowire arrays with tunable active surface, though attractive in optoelectronics, remains challenging to date. Herein, well-aligned sub-10 nm TiO2 nanowire arrays with controllable corrugated structure have been synthesized by a unique monomicelle-directed assembly method. The nanowires with an exceptionally small diameter of ∼8 nm abreast grow with an identical adjacent distance of ∼10 nm, forming vertically aligned arrays (∼800 nm thickness) with a large surface area of ∼102 m2 g–1. The corrugated structure consists of bowl-like concave structures (∼5 nm diameter) that are closely arranged along the axis of the ultrathin nanowires. And the diameter of the concave structures can be finely manipulated from ∼2 to 5 nm by simply varying the reaction time. The arrays exhibit excellent charge dynamic properties, leading to a high applied bias photon-to-current efficiency up to 1.4% even at a very low potential of 0.41 VRHE and a superior photocurrent of 1.96 mA cm–2 at 1.23 VRHE. Notably, an underlying mechanism of the hole extraction effect for concave walls is first clarified, demonstrating the exact role of concave walls as the hole collection centers for efficient water splitting.