Surface treatment with Al ³⁺ on a Ti-doped α-Fe ₂ O ₃ nanorod array photoanode for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting

In this paper, we present the fabrication of Ti-doped α-Fe2O3 and surface treatment with Al3+ for application as a photoanode in photoelectrochemical water splitting. The Ti-doped α-Fe2O3 with Al3+ treatment shows a 100 mV cathodic shift of the onset potential and a notable improvement of the photocurrent density. The samples were characterized by SEM, TEM, HRTEM, XRD, Raman, UV-vis and XPS to obtain the information after surface treatment. Based on electrochemistry and photoelectrochemistry techniques, it appears that surface treatment with Al3+ passivates the surface states and decreases the accumulation of charge at the surface of Ti–Fe2O3. The results show that Ti-doped Fe2O3 with Al3+ surface treatment can be used as an efficient photoanode for photoelectrochemical water splitting.