Enhanced Water Splitting on Thin-film Hematite Photoanodes Functionalized with Lithographically Fabricated Au Nanoparticles

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doi:10.1071/CH11453

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Enhanced Water Splitting on Thin-film Hematite Photoanodes Functionalized with Lithographically Fabricated Au Nanoparticles

Beniamino Iandolo ^A ^B and Michael Zäch ^A

^A Department of Applied Physics, Division for Chemical Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Göteborg, Sweden.
^B Corresponding author. Email: iandolo@chalmers.se

Australian Journal of Chemistry 65(6) 633-637 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/CH11453
Submitted: 1 December 2011 Accepted: 4 April 2012 Published: 21 June 2012





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Abstract

Iron oxide in its crystalline form (hematite, α-Fe₂O₃) is an interesting candidate as a photoanode material for photoelectrochemical cells, in spite of its non-optimal optoelectronic properties. We report here on the beneficial effect of Au nanodisks on the photocurrent of α-Fe₂O₃. Photoanodes consisting of ultra-thin α-Fe₂O₃ films lithographically functionalized with Au nanodisks of varying size were characterized and tested. We found a significant increase in photocurrent for the functionalized samples. The highest increase in incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency is roughly one order of magnitude compared with a reference sample without Au nanodisks and was found for incident light of 420 nm in wavelength. A detailed understanding of the phenomena underlying such an increase in efficiency is crucial to fully exploit the beneficial effect of the metallic nanostructures. This would contribute to make Fe₂O₃ more competitive in the race for the development of a commercially viable device for water splitting.

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