title: Physical and photoelectrochemical properties of Zr-doped hematite nanorod arrays.
abstract: This work examines the effect of Zr(4+) ions on the physical and photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties of hematite (α-Fe2O3) nanorod arrays grown in an aqueous solution containing zirconyl nitrate (ZrO(NO3)2) as a dopant precursor. The concentration of ZrO(NO3)2 in the precursor solution influenced both the film thickness and the Zr(4+) concentration in the resulting films. Zr doping was found to enhance the photocurrent for water splitting; the highest photocurrent at 1.0 V vs. Ag/AgCl (0.33 mA cm(-2)) for the Zr-doped α-Fe2O3 film was approximately 7.2 times higher than that for the undoped film (0.045 mA cm(-2)). Additionally, the incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) at 360 nm and 1.23 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) increased from 3.8% to 13.6%. Ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy suggests that Zr doping may influence PEC performance by reducing the rate of electron-hole recombination.
authors: International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi 710049, China. shshen_xjtu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
authors: Shaohua
authors: S
authors: Shen
authors: Penghui
authors: P
authors: Guo
authors: Damon A
authors: DA
authors: Wheeler
authors: Jiangang
authors: J
authors: Jiang
authors: Sarah A
authors: SA
authors: Lindley
authors: Coleman X
authors: CX
authors: Kronawitter
authors: Jin Z
authors: JZ
authors: Zhang
authors: Liejin
authors: L
authors: Guo
authors: Samuel S
authors: SS
authors: Mao