Fe2O3 nanorods/CuO nanoparticles p-n heterojunction photoanode: Effective charge separation and enhanced photoelectrochemical properties

Fe2O3/CuO p-n heterojunction photoelectrode films were fabricated by growing CuO nanoparticles on Fe2O3 nanorods via an impregnation method. The content of CuO in Fe2O3/CuO films was changed to study the role of CuO on the p-n heterojunction. The obtained Fe2O3/CuO photoelectrodes exhibited high intensity of visible-light absorption and excellence photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance. The incident photocurrent efficiency (IPCE) of Fe2O3/CuO photoanode reached 11.4% under 365 nm light irradiation, which is 2.6 times higher than that of bare Fe2O3 photoanode. In a PEC water splitting reaction, the H-2 and O-2 production rates for Fe2O3/CuO-3 were 0.294 and 0.130 mu mol/min. The enhanced PEC performance was mainly contributed by the enhanced charge separation and the synergism achieved in Fe2O3/CuO p-n heterojunctions. This work could provide a new route to construct efficient Fe2O3-based composite photoelectrodes for the PEC. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Fe2O3/CuO p-n heterojunction photoelectrode films were fabricated by growing CuO nanoparticles on Fe2O3 nanorods via an impregnation method. The obtained Fe2O3/CuO photoelectrodes exhibited high intensity of visible-light absorption and excellence photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance. The enhanced PEC performance was mainly contributed by the enhanced charge separation and the synergism achieved in Fe2O3/CuO p-n heterojunctions.