Preparation of nanostructured hematite film by electrodeposition for water spliting

• Main Author: Chong, Shi Min
• Other Authors: Chen Zhong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73786
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

High dependency of fossil fuels to maintain human lifestyle cause serious environmental issues to our world, such as global warming due to Green House gases etc. Usage of fossil fuels cause large emissions of CO2, with the rapid growth of CO2 at past years, Green House effect is getting worse. Scientists are exploring clean and renewable energy source to replace large usage of fossil fuels, which the most promising one, solar energy. Solar energy can be stored in a chemical form, such as Hydrogen fuel. As Hydrogen is one of the most abundant element on the earth, it could be a potential source of energy carrier for clean energy. Photocatalytic water splitting is highly favourable method to produce hydrogen as it doesn’t leave any carbon foot print. Hematite stands out as a promising material for water splitting as it meets most of the basic requirements. However, there are some limitations that hinder its potential, such as poor electroconductivity and short diffusion length. This study aims to enhance hematite photoanode properties by introduction of dopants and thermal annealing. The properties and morphological structure of the samples are studied by using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) & X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The results of water splitting points out that doping significantly enhance photocurrent of the nanostructured hematite photoanode as it helps to increase the electroconductivity. Further annealing treatment of hematite samples in inert gas also show increment of photocurrent of the samples.