Photoelectrochemical behavior of Nb-doped TiO2 electrodes

The photoelectrochemical behavior of degenerate Nb-doped TiO2 (Ti(1-x)Nb(x)O2: x = 0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.06, 0.1) electrodes prepared by pulsed laser deposition on LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO) was examined, revealing that an increase in Nb concentration causes a significant decay of titania photoactivity. One reason for such behavior may be a Burstein-Moss effect, which leads to a blue shift of the spectral limit of photoactivity. Another reason typical for metal-doped photocatalysts is the increase of the efficiency of charge carrier recombination.