Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 September 2017
TiO2 nanotubular structures were fabricated on Ti polished and unpolished foils exposed to H2O-Glycerol (50-50Vol.%)+0.27 M NH4F at 20V. The obtained TiO2 nanostructures were analyzed by SEM obtaining the morphological characterization, from which the roughness factors were calculated. Crystalline phases of both TiO2 nanotubular films were obtained by XRD after annealing at 450 °C and 600 °C for 2 h. The electrochemical stability of the TiO2 nanotubular films was obtained from the potentiodynamic polarization curves (PC) and the linear polarization resistance (Lpr) techniques, exposing the samples in 1M Na2SO4 + H2SO4 solution (pH = 3.2), such pH is in accordance with the acidic wastewater containing sulfur compounds coming from the industries or acid waters of the aquifers, which have been contaminated from the volcanoes nearby. It was concluded that the electrochemical stability of the crystallized nanotubular films is improved with the increase of the annealing temperature of the amorphous TiO2 arrays, which is associated to the higher composition of anatase and rutile, observing that the major amount of rutile improved the corrosion performance. The photoelectrochemical measurements were carried out in 0.5 M Na2SO4 solution using an 8 W UV lamp at a λ= 365 nm, whose results were recorded at zero bias during 10 min under darkness and illumination intervals of 1 min each. The obtained results were in agreement with the necessary features for being used in photocatalytic water remediation.