Theoretical investigation on the photoelectrochemical anticorrosion mechanism of SnO2–TiO2nanotube

In this work, the calculated electron density difference, Bader charge analysis and the density of states (DOS) of SnO 2 –TiO 2 -nanotubes (NTs) indicate that the electrons are transferred from the Ti atoms of TiO 2 into the O atoms of (SnO[Formula: see text] in SnO 2 –TiO 2 -NTs and the supported (SnO[Formula: see text] cluster acts as the role of storage for photogenerated electrons excited from TiO 2 -NTs, which is in good agreement with experimental results that the SnO 2 –TiO 2 -NTs composite films have higher photocurrent density for photocathodic protection of 304 stainless steel (304SS). The theoretical investigations provide a plausible explanation for the photoelectrochemical anticorrosion mechanism of SnO 2 –TiO 2 -NTs using periodic density functional theory (DFT).