28 June 2015 to 3 July 2015
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
SAIP2015 Proceeding published on 17 July 2016

Thermal and compositional defects in dip-coated iron oxide (&alpha;-Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>) thin film photoanodes: Effects on film properties

30 Jun 2015, 16:10
1h 50m
Board: A.450
Poster Presentation Track A - Division for Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Poster1

Speaker

Ms Kelebogile Maabong (University of Pretoria)

Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution

Dr Mmantsae Diale

Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)<br><a href="http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=0&confId=34" target="_blank">Formatting &<br>Special chars</a>

Hematite (α-Fe2O3) is an attractive semiconductor material for solar assisted electrolysis of water due to its narrow band (~ 2.1 eV), low cost and non-toxicity. α-Fe2O3 thin films photoanodes were synthesized by dip coating and their properties investigated with FESEM, XRD and photocurrent density spectroscopy. Strong dependence of structural and photoelectrochemical properties on film compositions and temperature was observed. The crystallites size was observed to increase with increasing Ti doping concentration. By fixing the doping concentration at 1 mol %, the photocurrent density at water splitting potential (1.23 V vs RHE) increased from 0.006 mA/cm-2 at 450 °C to 0.386 and 0.766 mA/cm-2at 500 and 550 °C respectively then decreased to 0.249 mA/cm-2 at 600 °C. Subsequent annealing temperatures introduced textural and structural defects with modifications in the film properties. The films cracked with cracks averaged 50 nm. Cracks may act as collection centres for impurities diffusing out of the lattice hence act as scattering sources for photons and carriers with consequent decrease in photoresponse of the films.

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Primary author

Ms Kelebogile Maabong (University of Pretoria)

Co-authors

Dr Artur Braun (Laboratory of High Ceramics, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology,) Dr Augusto Machatine (University of Pretoria) Dr Mmantsae Diale (University of Pretoria) Mr Yelin Hu (Laboratory of high Ceramics, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology)

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