Zn-Co layered double hydroxide modified hematite photoanode for enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting

Zinc-cobalt layered double hydroxide (LDH) was electrodeposited on Ti-doped hematite photoanodes for the first time, and a significant enhanced performance for photoelectrochemical water splitting was demonstrated over the composite photoanodes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were characterized with the resulted photoanodes. With the electrodepositing treatment, the photocurrent density increased from 1.27 mA/cm(2) for pristine hematite to 1.73 mA/cm(2) for modified materials at 1.23 V vs. RHE (i.e. 36% improvement). The photocurrent improvement is mainly attributed to a suppression of electron-hole recombination and reduced overpotential for water oxidation at the hematite-electrolyte interface due to the formation of Zn-Co LDH layer on hematite. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.