(45c) α-Fe2O3 Nanowire Array Based Electrodes for Self-Driven Photoelectrochemical Cells

Iron oxide, Fe2O3, is a promising material for water splitting reaction using solar energy.[1-2] Even the recent efforts, however, using Fe2O3 thin film materials reported low efficiencies due to poor carrier transport within these films.[3-4] In this regard, we have been working on a-Fe2O3 nanowire arrays as possible thin film materials systems for improved carrier mobility during photoelectrochemical water splitting reaction.

Recently, we developed a novel method to synthesize arrays of α-Fe2O3 nanowires, which are single crystal and have highly ordered oxygen vacancy plane.[5-6] The nanowire arrays are directly synthesized on metallic substrates using low-temperature RF plasma oxidation without the use of any foreign metal catalysts. The nanowire growth is spontaneous and the process lasts only seconds. This method could be scaled up for manufacturing of large area nanowire arrays on metallic foils. As one-dimensional nanostructures, these nanowires offer many other benefits to PEC electrolysis, such as high surface area, reduced charge carrier diffusion distance, and a preferential direction for charge diffusion. In this presentation, we will provide both synthesis and their photoelectrochemical properties of a-Fe2O3 nanowire arrays grown on Fe foils.

References

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2. J.H. Kennedy, M. Anderman, Photoelectrolysis of Water at alpha- Fe2O3 electrodes in Acidic Solution", J. of the Electrochemical Society 1983, 130, (4),

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4. W.B. Ingler, S.U.M. Khan, "A self-driven p/n-Fe2O3 tandem photoelectrochemical cell for water splitting", Electrochemical and Solid State Letters 2006, 9, (4), G144-G146.

5. U. Cvelbar, Z. Chen, M.K. Sunkara and M. Mozetic, "Spontaneous growth of superstructure α-Fe2O3 nanowire and nanobelt arrays in reactive oxygen plasma", Revision Submitted, Small (2008).

6. Z. Chen, U. Cvelbar, M. Mozetic, J. He and M.K. Sunkara, "Long-Range Ordering of Oxygen-Vacancy Planes in r-Fe2O3 Nanowires and Nanobelts", Chemistry of Materials, 20 (9), 3224 - 3228 (2008).