Activation of α-Fe2O3 Photoanode by Rapid Annealing Process for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting. (18th June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Geerthana, M.; Ramachandran, K.; Maadeswaran, P.; Navaneethan, M.; Harish, S.; Ramesh, R.
• Is Part Of: ECS journal of solid state science and technology. Volume 10:Number 6(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-06-18
• Subjects: Solid state chemistry -- Periodicals; Electronics -- Materials -- Periodicals; Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; 541.0421
• DOI: 10.1149/2162-8777/ac07fc
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2162-8777

Abstract

Abstract : Hematite ( α -Fe2 O3 ) has been attracted for PEC water splitting applications due to its chemical stability and visible light absorption property. To, further improve the PEC water splitting performance of the α -Fe2 O3 photoanode, a new activation process of hybrid microwave annealing (HMA) was taken on. In the present work, an α -Fe2 O3 photoanode was synthesized by the companied hydrothermal method and HMA process. The effect of HMA processing time on PEC water splitting performance of the α -Fe2 O3 photoanode was investigated. The results showed that a shorter HMA processing time (30 s) of photoanode provides a higher photocurrent density (∼0.74 mAcm −2 at 1.23 V vs RHE) than the photocurrent density (∼0.11mAcm −2 at 1.23 V vs RHE) of photoanode processed by longer time (3 min). This result due to the cauliflower-like morphology of α -Fe2 O3 (30 s) photoanode facilitates the enhanced light absorption thus provides a higher electrical conductivity with suppressed photogenerated charge carrier's recombination rates.