Cerium-Doped Iron Oxide Nanorod Arrays for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Hai-Peng Zhao; Mei-Ling Zhu; Hao-Yan Shi; Qian-Qian Zhou; Rui Chen; Shi-Wei Lin; Mei-Hong Tong; Ming-Hao Ji; Xia Jiang; Chen-Xing Liao; Yan-Xin Chen; Can-Zhong Lu

doi:10.3390/molecules27249050

Cerium-Doped Iron Oxide Nanorod Arrays for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Molecules. 2022 Dec 19;27(24):9050. doi: 10.3390/molecules27249050.

Authors

Hai-Peng Zhao^{1

2

3}, Mei-Ling Zhu^{2

3

4}, Hao-Yan Shi^{2

3

5}, Qian-Qian Zhou^{2

3}, Rui Chen^{2

3}, Shi-Wei Lin^{2

3}, Mei-Hong Tong^{2

3}, Ming-Hao Ji^{2

3}, Xia Jiang^{2

3}, Chen-Xing Liao¹, Yan-Xin Chen^{2

3

5

6}, Can-Zhong Lu^{2

3

4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Rare Earth, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Design and Assembly of Functional Nanostructures, and Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou 350002, China.
³ Xiamen Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Photoelectric Functional Materials, Xiamen Institute of Rare-Earth Materials, Haixi Institutes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China.
⁴ School of Rare Earths, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
⁵ College of Chemical Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁶ Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China, Fuzhou 350108, China.

Abstract

In this work, a simple one-step hydrothermal method was employed to prepare the Ce-doped Fe₂O₃ ordered nanorod arrays (CFT). The Ce doping successfully narrowed the band gap of Fe₂O₃, which improved the visible light absorption performance. In addition, with the help of Ce doping, the recombination of electron/hole pairs was significantly inhibited. The external voltage will make the performance of the Ce-doped sample better. Therefore, the Ce-doped Fe₂O₃ has reached superior photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance with a high photocurrent density of 1.47 mA/cm² at 1.6 V vs. RHE (Reversible Hydrogen Electrode), which is 7.3 times higher than that of pristine Fe₂O₃ nanorod arrays (FT). The Hydrogen (H₂) production from PEC water splitting of Fe₂O₃ was highly improved by Ce doping to achieve an evolution rate of 21 μmol/cm²/h.

Keywords: Fe2O3 nanorod arrays; cerium-doped; photoelectrochemical water splitting.

Abstract

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