Abstract
Hematite (α-Fe2O3) has been investigated as a promising material for the development of renewable energy technologies. However, intrinsic poor electrical conductivity and fast charge–carrier recombination rate of α-Fe2O3 are the limiting factors for such applications. A suitable approach to overcome these limitations is the insertion of electron-donor species into the α-Fe2O3 structure. This study describes the effects of incorporating SnO2 with different thermal histories on the electrical properties of α-Fe2O3. The sintering temperature at 1300 °C was responsible for a significant increase in the average grain sizes compared to the samples sintered at 1100 °C. Lower resistivity values were observed in samples obtained at 1100 °C with 2.0 wt% SnO2. As such, SnO2 was found to be an excellent modifying agent to favor the overall α-Fe2O3 electrical conductivity. Solid-state impedance spectroscopy was adopted as a versatile tool to analyze the occurrence of preferential grain boundaries for electrical current flow.
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