Abstract
In the present work, we report on a preparation strategy for hematite phase-pure photoanodes consisting of Sn-doped hematite nanoflakes/hematite thin film bilayer nanostructure (Sn-HB). This approach is based on a two-step annealing process of pure iron films deposited on FTO substrates by advanced magnetron sputtering. While the high density hematite ultrathin nanoflakes (HNs) with detrimental iron oxide layers (Fe 3 O 4 and/or FeO) are generated during the first annealing step at 400 °C for two hours, the second thermal treatment at 800 °C for 15 minutes oxidises all the undesired iron oxide phases to a photoactive hematite layer as well as is providing efficient Sn doping of a drop-casted SnCl 4 in order to increase the conductivity. The optimized Sn-HB shows an ~11 times higher photocurrent density (0.71 mA/cm 2 at 1.23 V RHE ) compared with a reference hematite photoanode produced from iron foil under the same conditions.
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