Surface treatment of hematite photoanodes with zinc acetate for water oxidation

• Main Authors: Xi, Lifei, Bassi, Prince Saurabh, Chiam, Sing Yang, Mak, Wai Fatt, Tran, Phong D., Barber, James, Loo, Say Chye Joachim, Wong, Lydia Helena
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/94963; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/8303
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A simple and inexpensive method to form a hematite photoanode for efficient water oxidation is reported. A very thin ZnO overlayer was deposited on top of a thin film of hematite and found, compared with non-treated hematite, to increase the photocurrent and reduce the onset potential for generating oxygen from water. After 3 cycles of ZnAc treatment, the photocurrent increased more than 40% to 1.08 mA/cm-2 at 0.23 V vs Ag/AgCl and onset potential for water oxidation shifted by -170 mV. It is proposed the ZnO overlayer changes the flat band potential of hematite and reduces the surface defects.