ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
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2025
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IF 8.2
Sen Cui,Kai Song,Houjiang Liu,Hongyan Li,Yufei Zhang,Weijie Ren,Rui Zhang,Kun Li,Fang He,Zhenxing Qin,Huilin Hou
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting for hydrogen production is a promising technology for sustainable energy generation. In this work, we introduce Nd sites boost the PEC performance of Fe2O3 photoanodes through a precise gas-phase cation exchange process, which substitutes surface Fe atoms with Nd. The incorporation of Nd significantly enhances charge transfer properties, increases carrier concentration, and reduces internal resistance, leading to a substantial increase in photocurrent density from 0.44 to 0.92 mA cm–2 at 1.23 VRHE. Further enhancement of catalytic activity was achieved by depositing a NiCo(OH)x layer and a photocurrent density of 1.15 mA cm–2 at 1.23 VRHE were obtained. Theoretical calculations corroborate these experimental results, revealing that Nd doping narrows the bandgap, improves charge separation efficiency, and lowers the reaction potential barrier, thereby accelerating water oxidation kinetics. These findings underscore the effectiveness of surface cation exchange and targeted metallic element doping in overcoming the intrinsic limitations of Fe2O3, providing a viable pathway for developing high-performance PEC systems for efficient hydrogen production.
研究领域:
材料科学
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可再生能源
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理论计算
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Nanomaterials
·
2023
·Vol. 13
·期 18
·2579
·
IF 5.3
Yue Chang,Minmin Han,Yehui Ding,Huiyun Wei,Dawei Zhang,Hong Luo,Xiaogang Li,Xiongbo Yan
Effectively regulating and promoting the charge separation and transfer of photoanodes is a key and challenging aspect of photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation. Herein, a Ti-doped hematite photoanode with a CoFe-LDH cocatalyst loaded on the surface was prepared through a series of processes, including hydrothermal treatment, annealing and electrodeposition. The prepared CoFe-LDH/Ti:α-Fe2O3photoanode exhibited an outstanding photocurrent density of 3.06 mA/cm2at 1.23 VRHE, which is five times higher than that of α-Fe2O3alone. CoFe-LDH modification and Ti doping on hematite can boost the surface charge transfer efficiency, which is mainly attributed to the interface interaction between CoFe-LDH and Ti:α-Fe2O3. Furthermore, we investigated the role of Ti doping in enhancing the PEC performance of CoFe-LDH/Ti:α-Fe2O3. A series of characterizations and theoretical calculations revealed that, in addition to improving the electronic conductivity of the bulk material, Ti doping also further enhances the interface coupling of CoFe-LDH/α-Fe2O3and finely regulates the interfacial electronic structure. These changes promote the rapid extraction of holes from hematite and facilitate charge separation and transfer. The informative findings presented in this work provide valuable insights for the design and construction of hematite photoanodes, offering guidance for achieving excellent performance in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation.
研究领域:
材料科学
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能源转换
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电化学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Journal of Materials Chemistry A
·
2017
·Vol. 5
·期 18
·8402-8407
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IF 8.867
Zhongwen Fan,Zhe Xu,Shicheng Yan,Zhigang Zou
Inevitable surface defects on α-Fe2O3 photoanodes, a promising candidate for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting with excellent stability and absorption in the visible light region, greatly limit their PEC performance for water oxidization. Surface modification is an effective strategy to decrease the negative effects of the surface defects. However, a challenge in understanding the nature of surface modification still remains. Here, we found that an ion-permeable Al2O3 coating layer can effectively prevent oxygen diffusion to the photoanode surface, thus suppressing the back reaction from oxygen reduction. The ion-permeable Al2O3 leads to ineffective surface state passivation due to the possible interface corrosion effect of OH− ions that decrease the interactions between Al2O3 and Fe2O3. In contrast, the ion-impermeable Al2O3 layer exhibits strong interactions with Fe2O3 and is mainly responsible for both surface state passivation and back reaction suppression, improving the photocurrent onset potential. Our results indicated that the modification of ion-impermeable passivation layers is a potential effective strategy to enhance the PEC performance.
研究领域:
材料科学
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能源科学
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
Crystals
·
2025
·Vol. 15
·期 1
·85
·
IF 2.4
Chen Liu,Jiajuan Li,Wenyao Zhang,Changqing Zhu
Considering the poor conductivity of Fe2O3and the weak oxygen evolution reaction associated with it, surface hole accumulation leads to electron hole pair recombination, which inhibits the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance of the Fe2O3photoanode. Therefore, the key to improving the PEC water oxidation performance of the Fe2O3photoanode is to take measures to improve the conductivity of Fe2O3and accelerate the reaction kinetics of surface oxidation. In this work, the PEC performances of Fe2O3photoanodes are synergistically improved by combining loaded an FeOOH cocatalyst and oxygen vacancy doping. Firstly, amorphous FeOOH layers are successfully prepared on Fe2O3nanostructures through simple photoassisted electrodepositon. Then oxygen vacancies are introduced into FeOOH-Fe2O3through plasma vacuum treatment, which reduces the content of Fe-O (OL) and Fe-OH (-OH), jointly promoting the generation of oxygen vacancies. Oxygen vacancy can increase the concentration of most carriers in Fe2O3and form photo-induced charge traps, promoting the separation of electron holes and enhancing the conductivity of Fe2O3. The other parts of -OH act as oxygen evolution catalysts to reduce the reaction obstacle of water oxidation and promote the transfer of holes to the electrode/electrolyte interface. The performance of FeOOH-Fe2O3after plasma vacuum treatment has been greatly improved, and the photocurrent density is about 1.9 times higher than that of the Fe2O3photoanode. The improvement in the water oxidation performance of PEC is considered to be the synergistic effect of the cocatalyst and oxygen vacancy. All outstanding PEC response characteristics show that the modification of the cocatalyst and oxygen vacancy doping represent a favorable strategy for synergistically improving Fe2O3photoanode performance.
研究领域:
材料科学
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能源科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
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2018
·
IF 8.097
Zhe Xu,Haoyu Wang,Yunzhou Wen,Wenchao Li,Chuyu Sun,Yuting He,Zhan Shi,Lang Pei,Yongda Chen,Shicheng Yan,Zhigang Zou
For photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, the interface interactions among semiconductors, electrocatalysts, and electrolytes affect the charge separation and catalysis in turn. Here, through the changing of the bath temperature, Co-based oxygen evolution catalysts (OEC) with different crystallinities were electrochemically deposited on Ti-doped Fe2O3 (Ti–Fe2O3) photoanodes. We found: (1) the OEC with low crystallinity is highly ion-permeable, decreasing the interactions between OEC and photoanode due to the intimate interaction between semiconductor and electrolyte; (2) the OEC with high crystallinity is nearly ion-impermeable, is beneficial to form a constant buried junction with semiconductor, and exhibits the low OEC catalytic activity; and (3) the OEC with moderate crystallinity is partially electrolyte-screened, thus contributing to the formation of ideal band bending underneath surface of semiconductor for charge separation and the highly electrocatalytic activity of OEC for lowering over-potentials of water oxidation. Our results demonstrate that to balance the water oxidation activity of OEC and OEC–semiconductor interface energetics is crucial for highly efficient solar energy conversion; in particular, the energy transducer is a semiconductor with a shallow or moderate valence-band level.
研究领域:
材料科学
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电化学
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可再生能源
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
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2022
·
IF 14.224
Kai Yan,Jianqiao Liu,Jin Qin,Jingdong Zhang
Photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) technology has been considered as one of the most efficient advanced oxidation processes for wastewater treatment , but the necessity of external electric power supply limits the portability of PEC system for on-field applications. Herein, a portable solar-powered biophotoelectrocatalytic system driven by photovoltaic (PV) cells was explored for degradation of pollutant by coupling BiVO 4 /Fe 2 O 3 -deposited photoanode and horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-immobilized cathode. The integration of PV cells in this PEC device could not only avoid the necessary introduction of external electric power supply, but also improve the utilization of solar irradiation. The characterization of BiVO 4 /Fe 2 O 3 photoanode demonstrates that ultrathin Fe 2 O 3 layer on BiVO 4 electrode could facilitate the holes transfer to the surface efficiently and thus avoid charge recombination. After HRP was immobilized on the cathode, the removal efficiency for 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) was obviously promoted, attributed to the efficient HRP-catalyzed oxidation reaction by in-situ generated H 2 O 2 from PEC process. Under natural solar irradiation, the proposed portable biophotoelectrocatalytic device exhibited a satisfying removal efficiency of 92.0% for 100 ppm of 2,4-DCP after 3-h treatment. The intermediate products formed during the degradation process were identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and possible 2,4-DCP degradation pathway was also proposed.
研究领域:
环境科学
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化学工程
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材料科学
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可持续能源
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）