Calculating Band Alignment between Materials with Different Structures: The Case of Anatase and Rutile Titanium Dioxide

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C Vol. 116; no. 39; pp. 20765 - 20768
• Main Authors: Kang, Jun, Wu, Fengmin, Li, Shu-Shen, Xia, Jian-Bai, Li, Jingbo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Columbus, OH American Chemical Society 04.10.2012
• Subjects: Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Electron states and collective excitations in thin films, multilayers, quantum wells, mesoscopic and nanoscale systems; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Exact sciences and technology; Materials science; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Physics; Quantum dots; Conduction bands; Valence bands; Electronic structure; Semiconductor materials; Anatase; Quantum dots; Test method; Titanium; Band offset; Nanostructured materials
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/jp3067525

A method to calculate the band alignment between materials with different structures using passivated quantum dots is proposed. By using this method, the rutile/anatase titanium dioxide band offset is determined. The valence band maxima of anatase and rutile are close to each other, whereas the conduction band minimum of anatase is found to be about 0.2 eV higher than that of rutile, which is in agreement with the experimental fact that anatase has higher photocatalytic activity. The reliability of this method is further tested on several semiconductors, and reasonable results are obtained for most cases.