Abstract
Extremely rapid high temperature annealing (ER-HTA) was used to boost the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance of hematite thin film deposited on a TiO2 nanosheet-modified SnO2:F substrate (FTO-TN-HM). The PEC performance of FTO-TN-HM photoanodes were strongly enhanced with increasing ER-HTA temperatures from 700 to 820°C with a holding time as short as 30s. The photocurrent density of FTO-TN-HM photoanode treated by ER-HTA at 800°C was 0.49mAcm-2 and interfacial hole transfer efficiency of 32% was achieved at 1.23V vs. RHE, which were 18.8 and 16 times as great as FTO-TN-HM photoanodes annealed at 500°C for 30min, respectively. The effect of ER-HTA on the PEC performance of FTO-TN-HM photoanodes were studied comparatively, which suggested that the improved crystallinity, decreased recombination through surface states, and enhanced interfacial Ti4+ diffusion all contributed to their advanced PEC performance. Our studies confirm that the ER-HTA treatment is an effective method to improve the PEC properties of hematite photoanodes with TiO2 underlayer and might be applicable for other semiconducting photoelectrodes to get better PEC performance.
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