Quartz Crystal Microbalance Study on Photoelectrochemical Deposition of Lead(IV) Oxide on Titanium(IV) Oxide Nanoparticulate Films

Photoelectrochemical quartz crystal microbalance measurements were used for in situ monitoring of the photoelectrochemical deposition of PbO2 onto a TiO2 nanoparticulate film electrode. It was found that the photodeposition behavior of PbO2 was influenced by pH of solution. At pH 3.8, the mass of the TiO2 film electrode decreased in the initial stage of irradiation due to the desorption of Pb2+ from the TiO2 surface and then linearly increased due to PbO2 deposition with an increase in the charge flowing as a photocurrent, while the initial decrease of the mass was much smaller at pH 1.8.