A facile spray pyrolysis method to prepare Ti-doped ZnFe2O4 for boosting photoelectrochemical water splitting

Although spinel zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4), with a band gap of 1.9 eV, is a promising photoanode material for solar water splitting, its photoelectrochemical performance is usually hindered by poor charge carrier transport. Ti4+ doping was introduced to increase the charge carrier concentration and prom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Materials for energy and sustainability, 2017-04, Vol.5 (16), p.7571-7577
Main Authors: Guo, Yongsheng, Zhang, Ningsi, Wang, Xin, Qian, Qinfeng, Zhang, Shiying, Li, Zhaosheng, Zou, Zhigang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Charge carriers
Doping
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
Fourier transforms
Infrared spectroscopy
Spray pyrolysis
Transport
Water splitting
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Summary:Although spinel zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4), with a band gap of 1.9 eV, is a promising photoanode material for solar water splitting, its photoelectrochemical performance is usually hindered by poor charge carrier transport. Ti4+ doping was introduced to increase the charge carrier concentration and promote charge carrier transport in the ZnFe2O4 photoanode. Here, pure and Ti4+-doped ZnFe2O4 photoanodes were prepared by a fast and effective spray pyrolysis method. In the Ti-doped ZnFe2O4 photoanode, some of the Fe3+ sites in the crystal lattice are substituted by Ti4+, as shown by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) analyses. The results of Mott-Schottky analysis and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) indicated that the substitution of Fe3+ by Ti4+ enhances the charge carrier concentration and electron transfer efficiency. The Ti-doped ZnFe2O4 photoanodes exhibit a solar water-splitting photocurrent of 0.35 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE (reversible hydrogen electrode), which is 8.75 times higher than that of the pure ZnFe2O4 photoanodes. Hence, this study may provide a simple route to fabricate multi-metal oxide photoelectrodes through ion doping to enhance their photoelectrochemical performances.
ISSN:2050-7488
2050-7496
DOI:10.1039/c6ta11134c