Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
11020021 | Journal of Alloys and Compounds | 2019 | 24 Pages |
Abstract
Ordered hierarchical structured films are considered promising photoanodes for high-performance water-splitting because of their large surface area for light absorption and excellent charge transfer process. In this paper, a novel hierarchical structured photoanode based on growing TiO2 on a Si nanowire substrate and coupling with Fe2O3 nanothorns was designed and fabricated via a simple method to obtain photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties. The Fe2O3/TiO2/Si nanowire arrays (NWs) were characterized in detail using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-vis spectra. The 3D Fe2O3/TiO2/Si hierarchical photoanode exhibited a photocurrent density of 3.5â¯mAâ¯cmâ2 at a bias potential of 1.23â¯V (vs. RHE), which is approximately 87.5 times higher than that of the Si nanowire array (NW) photoanode. The measurement results showed that the improved PEC performance could be attributed to the synergistic effect of the large surface area, low charge transfer resistance, and high charge separation in the hierarchical structure.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Materials Science
Metals and Alloys
Authors
Wei Zhang, Hao Chen, Lina Zhang, Ping Zhang, Enlai Dong, Jinwen Ma, Guiqiang Wang,