Superior visible-light assisted water splitting performance by Fe incorporated ZnO photoanodes. (February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Khan, Humaira Rashid; Aamir, Muhammad; Akram, Bilal; Tahir, Asif Ali; Malik, Mohammad Azad; Choudhary, Muhammad Aziz; Akhtar, Javeed
• Is Part Of: Materials research bulletin. Volume 122(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-02
• Subjects: PEC -- Fe incorporated ZnO -- Photoanodes -- AACVD -- Wurtzite; Materials -- Periodicals; Crystal growth -- Periodicals; Matériaux -- Périodiques; Cristaux -- Croissance -- Périodiques; Crystal growth; Materials; Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1016/j.materresbull.2019.110627
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0025-5408

Abstract

Graphical abstract: Highlights: A cost-effective method was developed and used to prepare photoanode substrates. Good quality conformal films were fabricating without any post-deposition treatment. Presence of iron in ZnO enhances its chemical and photo-stability. Abstract: Transition metal ion incorporation has been emerged as an effective stratagem to enhance the performance of metal oxide photoanodes. In the present work, we design and fabricate the plain ZnO and (2, 5, 10 and 15%) Fe incorporated ZnO photoanodes by aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) method. The 15% Fe incorporated ZnO photoanode displayed excellent photocurrent density of 4.6 mA/cm 2 at 0.7 VAg/AgCl with photo conversion efficiency of 2.4%, which is 159 times higher than pure ZnO photoanode (0.028 mA/cm 2 ). The obtained results are remarkably superior to the previous results. Furthermore, the Fe incorporated photoelectrodes have also shown good stability. The excellent photoelectrochemical performance of Fe incorporated ZnO showed red shift in band edge with relative decrease in the band gap energy compared to pure ZnO. The demonstration of this simple method for the deposition of Fe incorporated ZnO to fabricate highly efficient photoanode for the PEC water splitting can easily be applied to other similar systems.