Abstract
The investigation of photocatalytic behavior of compounds consisting of earth-abundant elements is vital for discovering cheap photocatalysts/photoelectrocatalysts. AlFeO3 is an attractive material in this context because all its constituent elements are earth-abundant. In this work, bulk heterojunctions (heterojunctions distributed throughout the volume of powder) of AlFeO3 and ZnO were prepared using the technique of jet milling and subsequently used for photoelectrochemical water splitting. Jet milling achieved two objectives – reduction of particle size and formation of heterojunctions. Jet milling of AlFeO3 and ZnO particles was performed under a nitrogen atmosphere to produce AlFeO3/ZnO heterojunctions. Making heterojunctions by using jet milling is extremely rapid, a single jet milling operation taking only five to ten minutes. The heterojunction powder sample exhibited a current density of 34.25 mA/cm2 under illumination (at 1.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl) when it was used as the working electrode in a three-electrode electrochemical cell for Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER). In contrast, ZnO nanoparticles prepared by jet milling (under nitrogen atmosphere) exhibited a current density of 18.54 mA/cm2 under illumination (at 1.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl). Thus, AlFeO3/ZnO bulk heterojunctions showed a superior photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance as compared to ZnO nanoparticles.
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