Convenient synthesis of highly oriented α-Fe2O3 microcone arrays with efficient photoelectrochemical properties

Abstract Highly oriented α-Fe2O3 microcone arrays have been synthesized by an one-step low temperature CVD method. The α-Fe2O3 microcone arrays are found to exhibit superior photocurrent response and can be applied as efficient photoeletrodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting reaction. The prepared microcone arrays photoanode possesses several advantages such as perfect crystal quality, highly preferred orientation, excellent visible light absorption and high electron density, showing excellent PEC performance. The photocurrent density of microcone arrays photoanode reaches a value of 0.20 mA/cm2 under AM 1.5 G illumination, which is much higher than the value of 0.08 mA/cm2 of nanorod arrays photoanode. This one-step CVD method thus can be applied to synthesis α-Fe2O3 nanostructure photoanode with high single crystal quality, highly preferred orientation and excellent photoelectrochemical performance, which has potential application in water splitting.