Synthesis of porous TiO2 and Fe-doped TiO2 films for photocatalysis by a cooling enhanced plasma electrolytic oxidation approach

Porous TiO2 films are widely used in photocatalysis for pollutant remediation and synthetic chemistry applications, and the homogeneity and stability of the films are important parameters. Here, we show that porous TiO2 and Fe-doped TiO2 (Fe-TiO2) films on Ti foils with homogeneous structure and well-controlled doping can be synthesized by a cooling enhanced plasma electrolytic oxidation (CPEO) method. The anatase content within pristine TiO2 films and the concentration of Fe dopant in Fe-TiO2 films can be manipulated by simply adjusting the synthetic parameters, leading to an optimum photocatalytic performance under both UV and visible light irradiation for the decomposition of methylene blue.