The exploitation of the photoelectrode materials with high-efficiency utilization of solar light, outstanding separation property of photogenerated charges and a large surface area is extremely meaningful yet significantly challenging. Herein, the three-dimensional array of reduced TiO2 nanobelts with disordered surface and abundant oxygen vacancies have been successfully constructed for PEC water splitting. Within expectation, the reduced 3D-TiO2 nanobelt array produces a photocurrent density of 0.96 mA/cm2 at 0.22 V vs. Ag/AgCl with Faradic efficiency of 100%, corresponding to 2.4 times enhancement compared with that of the pristine 3D-TiO2 nanobelt array. Furthermore, IPCE is also improved both within UV and visible light regions. This enhancement originates primarily from the efficient utilization of UV-visible light as well as the promoted separation and transport of photogenerated charges induced by cooperative effect of disorder surface and oxygen vacancies. This research sheds new light on exploiting the TiO2 nanobelts for PEC applications.

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