Investigation and optimization of nanostructured TiO2 photoelectrode in regard to hydrogen production through photoelectrochemical process

This paper reports the investigations on the optimization of nanostructured TiO2 with respect to optimum photoelectrode area for modular design of photoelectrolysis cell. This was done for determining the electrode area for optimum electrical output and hydrogen production rate. The nanostructured TiO2 has been formed by hydrolysis of titanium tetraisopropoxide Ti[OCH(CH3)2]4 followed by the deposition with spin on technique. The photoelectrochemical cell having nanostructured TiO2 photoanode of several geometric areas, namely, 0.21, 0.50, 0.72, 1.47 and 1.85 cm2, were fabricated and characterized. It has been found that the photoanode area corresponding to optimum electrical output and hydrogen production rate corresponds to ∼0.5 cm2.