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Rigorous substrate cleaning process for reproducible thin film hematite (α-Fe2O3) photoanodes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2015

Kirtiman Deo Malviya ,
Hen Dotan ,
Ki Ro Yoon ,
Il-Doo Kim  and
Avner Rothschild
Kirtiman Deo Malviya
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel
Hen Dotan
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel
Ki Ro Yoon
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea
Il-Doo Kim
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea
Avner Rothschild*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Hematite (α-Fe2O3) photoanodes are widely studied as candidates for water splitting photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells. To speed up the development of high efficiency hematite photoanodes, systematic investigations of the effect of material properties such as dopants and microstructure on PEC properties that determine the photoanode performance are crucial. Toward this end, this work presents a route for reproducible fabrication of thin film hematite photoanodes with reproducible microstructure and PEC properties. Hematite thin (50 nm) films are deposited by pulsed laser deposition from a Ti-doped (1 cation%) Fe2O3 target onto cleaned transparent conducting substrates (fluorinated tin oxide, FTO, coated glass substrates). Special attention is paid to rigorous cleaning of the substrates prior to the hematite deposition, which is found to be crucial for achieving highly reproducible results. Specimens prepared by this route display homogenous conformal coating with very little spread in PEC properties between different specimens, meeting the necessary prerequisite for systematic investigation of hematite photoanodes.

Keywords

water splittingiron oxidethin filmsFTOsubstrate cleaning
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 31 , Issue 11: Focus Issue: Advanced Materials and Structures for Solar Fuels , 14 June 2016 , pp. 1565 - 1573
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

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