Designing a Photoanode for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting by Layer by Layer (LBL) and Hydrothermal (HT) Methods

Photocatalytic water splitting using sunlight is a promising path for hydrogen energy generation without pollutant byproducts. However, the factors such as energy loss related to the fast recombination of the photogenerated charge carriers, electrode degradation, and limited light harvesting originates laboriouschallenges for improving solar fuel water splitting efficiency. In this research, a new photoanode was fabricated by layer by layer (LBL) and hydrothermal (HT)methods continuously. It is shown that the novel synthesis method using hematite (α-Fe2O3) and TiO2 enhanced photocatalytic activity by increasing charge transfer, visible light absorption, reducing the gas evolution overpotential and maintaining chemical and physical stability.

Keywords:

Photoelectrochemical water-splitting , Hematite (α-Fe2O3) , Hydrothermal method , layer by layer (LBL) method.