A New Insight in the Physical and Photoelectrochemical Properties of Molybdenum Disulfide Alpha-Hematite Nanocomposite Films

Abstract

The alpha (α)-hematite (Fe 2 O 3 ) as photoanode has been used for photoelectrochemical applications due to low bandgap, low cost, high chemical stability, nontoxicity, and abundance in nature. The doping with various transition metals, formation of nanostructured and nanocomposite of α-Fe 2 O 3 have been attempted to enrich the carrier mobility, surface kinetics and carrier diffusion properties. The manuscript is an attempt to improve the photoelectrochemical properties of α-Fe 2 O 3 by formation of nanocomposite with dichalcogenide (molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) nanomaterials. The nanocomposite of MoS 2 -α-Fe 2 O 3 have been synthesized by varying the amount of MoS 2 in sol-gel synthesis process. The nanocomposite MoS 2 -α-Fe 2 O 3 materials were characterized using UV-visible, FTIR, SEM, X-ray diffraction, Raman and particle analyzer. The photoelectrochemical properties were investigated using cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry studies. The optical and structural properties of MoS 2 -α-Fe 2 O 3 nanocomposite have been found to be dependent on MoS 2 doping. The band gap has shifted whereas; the structure is more prominent as flower-like morphology, which is a result of doping of MoS 2 . The photocurrent is more pronounced with and without light exposition to MoS 2 -α-Fe 2 O 3 based electrode in photoelectrochemical cell. We have understood the photoelectrochemical water splitting using nanocomposite α-Fe 2 O 3 -MoS 2 through schematic representation based on experimental results. The

Phase Engineering from 2H to 1T-MoS2 for Efficient Ammonia PL Sensor and Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

“…The effective surface area was calculated to be 0.045 and 0.055 cm 2 for 2H and 1T MoS 2 nanoflakes respectively using the Randles Sevcik equation. 51 It is obvious that even though there isn't much increase in peak currents (Ip), the cathodic (Ipc) and anodic (Ipa) peak current are found to increase with increasing scan rate exhibiting a linear proportion between the redox peak currents and square root of scan rate. It can be suggested that, apart from surface area, the enhanced catalytic activity is contributed from the metallic phase and electroactive edge sites of 1T-MoS 2 .…”

Advances in Hierarchical Inorganic Nanostructures for Efficient Solar Energy Harvesting Systems

“…Several nanostructures of these oxides such as nanowires, nanotubes, nanoparticles, and nanoflowers, have been recently studied. Among these structures, hierarchical nanostructures have emerged as one of the most popular nanostructures owing to their enhanced light absorption, interfacial charge transfer, electrolyte penetration, and high surface‐to‐volume ratio properties [164–166] . However, the photocatalytic activity of these nanostructured materials is limited by photo corrosion and rapid charge recombination.…”

“…Among these structures, hierarchical nanostructures have emerged as one of the most popular nanostructures owing to their enhanced light absorption, interfacial charge transfer, electrolyte penetration, and high surface-to-volume ratio properties. [164][165][166] However, the photocatalytic activity of these nanostructured materials is limited by photo corrosion and rapid charge recombination. Therefore, these inadequacies have motivated researchers to fabricate hierarchical nanostructurebased heterojunctions for efficient water splitting.…”