A novel strategy for surface treatment on hematite photoanode for efficient water oxidation

In this paper, we report a novel strategy for surface treatment of hematite nanorods for efficient photo-driven water oxidation. This is the first report describing the growth of Sn treated hematite from alpha -FeOOH nanorod arrays in one step without substantially altering morphologies. With this t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical science (Cambridge) 2013-01, Vol.4 (1), p.164-169
Main Authors: Xi, Lifei, Chiam, Sing Yang, Mak, Wai Fatt, Tran, Phong D., Barber, James, Loo, Say Chye Joachim, Wong, Lydia Helena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Density
Hematite
Nanorods
Photocurrent
Photoelectric effect
Strategy
Surface treatment
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
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Summary:In this paper, we report a novel strategy for surface treatment of hematite nanorods for efficient photo-driven water oxidation. This is the first report describing the growth of Sn treated hematite from alpha -FeOOH nanorod arrays in one step without substantially altering morphologies. With this treatment the photocurrent density increased from 1.24 for pristine hematite nanorods to 2.25 mA cm super(-2) at 1.23 V vs. RHE (i.e. 81% improvement). The increase in photocurrent density was also accompanied by improved incident-photon-to-current efficiencies and oxygen evolution. The photocurrent improvement is mainly attributed to a reduced electron-hole recombination at the hematite-electrolyte interface through the formation of Fe sub(x)Sn sub(1-x)O sub(4) layer at the hematite nanorod surface as shown by XPS, HRTEM, EDAX line scan analyses and PEC measurements.
ISSN:2041-6520
2041-6539
DOI:10.1039/C2SC20881D