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Electrophoretic deposition of nanostructured hematite photoanodes for solar hydrogen generation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2016

Xiangyan Chen ,
Meng Wang ,
Jie Chen  and
Shaohua Shen
Xiangyan Chen
Affiliation:
International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China
Meng Wang
Affiliation:
International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China
Jie Chen
Affiliation:
International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China
Shaohua Shen*
Affiliation:
International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In this study, hematite nanoparticles (α-Fe2O3 NPs) were synthesized by hydrothermal method, with morphologies (e.g., nanorhombohedra, nanobars, and nanospheres) facilely tuned by changing the concentrations of glycol in the hydrothermal solution. Then a low-cost and scalable electrophoretic deposition method was used to fabricate nanostructured α-Fe2O3 films as photoanodes for solar hydrogen generation. It was found that the film of α-Fe2O3 nanobars showed the highest photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance compared to those films of α-Fe2O3 nanorhombohedra and nanospheres, with photocurrent density reaching 0.7 mA/cm2 at 0.6 V versus Ag/AgCl. This PEC improvement may be related to the smaller diameters of nanobars shortening the carrier migration distance, reducing the recombination rate of photo-generated carriers. Moreover, all the α-Fe2O3 films showed much higher PEC performances with surface modified by Sn4+, mainly due to the reduced surface charge recombination, as the Sn4+ doped overlayer passivated surface defects. For the film of α-Fe2O3 nanobars, the photocurrent density was increased by 100%, reaching 1.4 mA/cm2 at 0.6 V versus Ag/AgCl.

Keywords

nanostructurephotochemicalenergy generation
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 31 , Issue 11: Focus Issue: Advanced Materials and Structures for Solar Fuels , 14 June 2016 , pp. 1547 - 1553
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

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