Identifying protons trapped in hematite photoanodes through structure-property analysis.

ABSTRACT: Uncertainty regarding the nature of structural defects in hematite and their specific impacts on material properties and photoelectrocatalytic water oxidation inhibits their development as photoanodes. We perform structure-property analysis on a series of hematite films fabricated by annealing lepidocrocite films with varied temperatures, annealing times and atmospheres and find a gradient in the magnitude of a crystal lattice distortion by tracking the relative intensity of a formally Raman inactive vibrational mode. Structure-property analysis reveals that this feature in the Raman spectrum correlates to photocurrent density, semiconductor band positions, and the onset of photoelectrocatalysis. We propose that the onset of photoelectrocatalysis is linked to the location of defects that a

SUBMITTER: Liu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8145353 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature