Enhancement of photoelectrochemical properties with α-Fe2O3 on surface modified FTO substrates

Despite a number of favorable properties, several drawbacks need to be addressed before hematite can be considered a highly desirable material for applications in water-splitting photoelectrochemical (PEC) electrodes. In the present work, the PEC performance was improved by the synergetic effects of the preparation techniques and modification of the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass. The hematite photoanodes deposited onto the pretreated FTO supports clearly decreased the overpotential by up to 100 mV with a higher photocurrent compared to the bare FTO glass. In particular, an electrochemical preparation method including moderate annealing resulted in a highly enhanced PEC performance by influencing the FTO glass during the electrode preparation process.