Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-42196 Göteborg, Sweden.
Center for electron nanoscopy, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jan 16;7:40500. doi: 10.1038/srep40500.
Hematite is a promising and extensively investigated material for various photoelectrochemical (PEC) processes for energy conversion and storage, in particular for oxidation reactions. Thermal treatments during synthesis of hematite are found to affect the performance of hematite electrodes considerably. Herein, we present hematite thin films fabricated via one-step oxidation of Fe by rapid thermal processing (RTP). In particular, we investigate the effect of oxidation temperature on the PEC properties of hematite. Films prepared at 750 °C show the highest activity towards water oxidation. These films show the largest average grain size and the highest charge carrier density, as determined from electron microscopy and impedance spectroscopy analysis. We believe that the fast processing enabled by RTP makes this technique a preferred method for investigation of novel materials and architectures, potentially also on nanostructured electrodes, where retaining high surface area is crucial to maximize performance.
赤铁矿是一种很有前途的材料，广泛应用于各种光电化学（PEC）过程，用于能量转换和存储，特别是用于氧化反应。研究发现，赤铁矿的合成过程中的热处理会对赤铁矿电极的性能产生重大影响。在此，我们通过快速热加工（RTP）一步氧化 Fe 来制备赤铁矿薄膜。具体而言，我们研究了氧化温度对赤铁矿 PEC 性能的影响。在 750°C 下制备的薄膜对水氧化表现出最高的活性。这些薄膜的平均晶粒尺寸最大，载流子密度最高，这是通过电子显微镜和阻抗谱分析确定的。我们相信，RTP 实现的快速处理使该技术成为研究新型材料和结构的首选方法，也可能在纳米结构电极上，在这些电极上保持高表面积对于最大限度地提高性能至关重要。
