Tailoring hematite/FTO interfaces: New horizons for spin-coated hematite photoanodes targeting water splitting

Abstract

This letter focuses on finding the balance from optical absorption and performance on oxidation of water induced by sunlight irradiation. A simple and scalable chemical based spin-coating deposition method was employed to tailor an active hematite-substrate interface. The improvement achieved was attributed to a good balance found in light absorption and a hematite layer adherence that favors more efficient charge injection through the interface (hematite/substrate) and avoiding fast electron-photogenerated hole recombination. The present findings reopen the opportunity for using a low-cost and scalable method to produce efficient PEC photoelectrodes.