Dendritic Hematite Nanoarray Photoanode Modified with a Conformal Titanium Dioxide Interlayer for Effective Charge Collection

Zhibin Luo; Tuo Wang; Jijie Zhang; Chengcheng Li; Huimin Li; Jinlong Gong

doi:10.1002/anie.201705772

Dendritic Hematite Nanoarray Photoanode Modified with a Conformal Titanium Dioxide Interlayer for Effective Charge Collection

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017 Oct 9;56(42):12878-12882. doi: 10.1002/anie.201705772. Epub 2017 Aug 23.

Authors

Zhibin Luo¹, Tuo Wang¹, Jijie Zhang¹, Chengcheng Li¹, Huimin Li¹, Jinlong Gong¹

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China.

PMID: 28742947
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201705772

Abstract

This paper describes the introduction of a thin titanium dioxide interlayer that serves as passivation layer and dopant source for hematite (α-Fe₂ O₃ ) nanoarray photoanodes. This interlayer is demonstrated to boost the photocurrent by suppressing the substrate/hematite interfacial charge recombination, and to increase the electrical conductivity by enabling Ti⁴⁺ incorporation. The dendritic nanostructure of this photoanode with an increased solid-liquid junction area further improves the surface charge collection efficiency, generating a photocurrent of about 2.5 mA cm^-2 at 1.23 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (vs. RHE) under air mass 1.5G illumination. A photocurrent of approximately 3.1 mA cm^-2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE could be achieved by addition of an iron oxide hydroxide cocatalyst.

Keywords: dendritic nanostructures; electrocatalysis; hematite; titanium dioxide; water oxidation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't