Photoelectrochemical performance of bilayered Fe–TiO2/Zn–Fe2O3 thin films for solar generation of hydrogen

• DOI: 10.1007/s10008-011-1552-z
• Publication Date: 2011-10-03T01:32:30Z
• Authors: Poonam Sharma; Praveen Kumar; Anjana Solanki; Rohit Shrivastav; Sahab Dass; Vibha R. Satsangi
• Keywords: Photocurrent; Reversible hydrogen electrode

A visible-light sensitive bilayered photoanode of Fe–TiO2/Zn–Fe2O3 has been developed by spray pyrolytically depositing Zn–Fe2O3 layers onto predeposited Fe–TiO2 thin film on ITO substrate. Fe–TiO2/Zn–Fe2O3 photoelectrodes were characterized by XRD, Raman, AFM, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. Photoelectrochemical properties of bilayered Fe–TiO2/Zn–Fe2O3 photoelectrode were studied by Mott–Schottky curves and I–V characteristics. Bilayered Fe–TiO2/Zn–Fe2O3 photoelectrode was observed to possess much higher separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers and could generate nine times better photocurrent density than pure Fe–TiO2. Solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency exhibited by this electrode was 0.77%.