Visible light responsive titania-based nanostructures for photocatalytic, photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical applications

This work presents a topical review of selected articles on visible light responsive titania-based nanostructures used for fabricating the photoanodes of the photocatalytic and photoelectrical cells for hydrogen production by water splitting or fuel decomposition, electricity generation by fuel decomposition and pollutant degradation under illumination by sunlight as well as for fabricating dye-sensitized and quantum dot-sensitized solar cells. Three main types of related nanostructures are reviewed: anion-doped titania nanomaterials, cation-doped titania nanomaterials and titania-based nanostructures sensitized by dyes and quantum dots. After the presentation of the obtained results, the prospective further research works to achieve the successful fabrication of visible light responsive photocatalytic, photoelectrochemical or photovoltaic devices with high performance are discussed.