TiO2 photoanodes prepared by cathodic electrophoretic deposition in 2-propanol: effect of the electric field and deposition time

This paper evaluates the influence of electric field and deposition time applied on cathodic electrophoretic formation of TiO2 films in organic medium (2-propanol). The film morphology was tracked by measuring the deposited mass and film thickness. The variation in film porosity was correlated with the apparition of surface states distribution in the cyclic voltammetric characterization in the dark, due to grain boundaries defects generated in the contact of the TiO2 particles. The open-circuit voltage decay curves showed that there is no formation of deep energy states inside the band gap of the TiO2. The photopotential of the films increased until a critical thickness but the photocurrents showed to be dependent on operational variables, due to the fact that anodic polarization in thin films increases the electric field generated by the illumination at the ITO/TiO2 interface, favoring the transport of the photogenerated electrons to the rear contact.