Cathodic shift of onset potential on TiO2 nanorod arrays with significantly enhanced visible light photoactivity via nitrogen/cobalt co-implantation

Despite anionic doping has been widely implemented to increase the visible light activity of TiO$_{2}$, it often gives rise to a dramatical anodic shift in current onset potential. Herein, we show an effective method to achieve the huge cathodic shift of TiO$_{2}$ photoanode with significantly enhanced visible light photo-electrochemical activity by nitrogen/cobalt co-implantation. The nitrogen/cobalt co-doped TiO$_{2}$ nanorod arrays (N/Co-TiO$_{2}$) exhibit a cathodic shift of 350 mV in onset potential relative to only nitrogen-doped TiO$_{2}$ (N-TiO$_{2}$). Moreover, the visible-light ($lambda >420 $ nm) photocurrent density of N/Co-TiO$_{2}$ reaches 0.46 mA/cm$^{2}$, far exceeding 0.07 mA/cm$^{2}$ in N-TiO$_{2}$ at 1.23 V $versus$ reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). Systematic characterization studies demonstrate that the enhanced photo-electrochemical performance can be attributed to the surface synergic sputtering of high-energy nitrogen/cobalt ions.