Photoelectrochemical Oxidation of Water at Transparent Ferric Oxide Film Electrodes

Abstract

The fabrication of thin-film Fe(2)O(3) photoanodes from the spray pyrolysis of Fe(III)-containing solutions is reported along with their structural characterization and application to the photoelectrolysis of water. These films combine good performance, measured in terms of photocurrent density, with excellent mechanical stability. A full investigation into the effects that modifications of the spray-pyrolysis method, such as the addition of dopants or structure-directing agents and changes in precursor species or carrier solvent, have on the performance of the photoanodes has been realized. The largest photocurrents were obtained from photoanodes prepared from ferric chloride precursor solutions, simultaneously doped with Ti(4+) (5%) and Al(3+) (1%). Doping with Zn(2+) also shows promise, cathodically shifting the onset potential by approximately 0.22 V.

Surface aspects of sol–gel derived hematite films for the photoelectrochemical oxidation of water

“…Raman bands of magnetite were also found in the literature, however, in the Raman analysis of the highly active hematite films obtained from plasma spraying and gas phase reaction due to the reduction of hematite at high temperatures. 20,21 Two weaker bands are detected at 818 and in the range between 1040 and 1090 cm…”

Electrodeposition of Nanometer-Sized Ferric Oxide Materials in Colloidal Templates for Conversion of Light to Chemical Energy

“…Much of the early work on hematite photoelectrochemistry was done in the 1970-1980s; however, recently there have been a few promising reports [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Poor solar charge collection efficiency was attributed to low minority (hole) diffusion lengths [30].…”

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

“…The doping with several metallic ions such as zinc [16], titanium [17] [18], molybdenum [19], aluminum [20], platinum [21], silicon [22] [23] [24], graphene [25] [ 26], and cadmium sulfide [27] Recently, two-dimensional (2D) dichalcogenide material "molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 )" with bandgap of 1.8 eV has been used as n-and p-types structures for photoelectrochemical studies [5]. The MoS 2 shows stimulating photocatalytic activity due to its bonding, chemical composition, doping, and nanoparticles growth on various film matrices, and has been used for hydrogen production in nanocluster structures [2] [31] [32] [33] [34].…”