Thermal air oxidation of Fe: Rapid hematite nanowire growth and photoelectrochemical water splitting performance

RIS ID

104435

Publication Details

Grigorescu, S., Lee, C., Lee, K., Albu, S., Paramasivam, I., Demetrescu, I. & Schmuki, P. (2012). Thermal air oxidation of Fe: Rapid hematite nanowire growth and photoelectrochemical water splitting performance. Electrochemistry Communications, 23 (1), 59-62.

Abstract

Different iron oxide structures were formed by annealing of iron foils in air at temperatures between 500 °C to 800 °C. Depending on temperature, a significant variation in the hematite/magnetite ratio and a strongly temperature dependent morphology is obtained. While over a wide range of conditions more or less compact Fe 3O 4/Fe 2O 3 layers are obtained, at 600 °C rapid growth (several micrometer per hour) of highly crystalline hematite nanowires can be observed. Visible light photocurrent measurements in 1 M NaOH under AM 1.5 100 mW/cm 2 conditions show that photocurrent density and the onset potential for water oxidation strongly shifted in the cathodic direction for the nanowire morphology. The results indicate that a simple air oxidation of iron can provide a rapid path to form hematite nanowires. Obtained layers are considerably active as photoanodes for solar water splitting. 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elecom.2012.06.038