Electrodeposited Co-Pi Catalyst on Α-Fe2o3 Photoanode For Water-Splitting Applications

Optoelectronic properties of hematite (α-fe2o3) as a photoanode and the required over-potential in photo-assisted water splitting has been improved by presence of co-pi on its surface. in order to increase the lifetime of the photogenerated holes and lower the applied bias, cobalt-phosphate (co-pi) on nanostructured α-fe2o3 by electrodeposition was deposited. the nanostructure morphology of the α-fe2o3 was confirmed by xrd and sem. after depositing four different thicknesses of co-pi on α-fe2o3, their photo-electrochemical (pec) property was determined using linear sweep voltammetry (lsv) and chronoamperometry. the sem and edx results showed a complete coverage of co-pi on α-fe2o3 and that the co:p ratio was approximately 1:1.9 for the best produced catalyst. the highest performance of about 200 mv decrease in the onset potential was achieved for the 30-minutes electrodeposited sample. the co-pi/α-fe2o3 catalyst showed an enhancement of 100% of photocurrent compared to the bare α-fe2o3.