A co-activation strategy for enhancing the performance of hematite in photoelectrochemical water oxidation

Hematite(α-Fe_(2)O_(3))is a promising photoanode for photoelectrochemical(PEC)water splitting.However,the severe charge recombination and sluggish water oxidation kinetics extremely limit its use in photohydrogen conversion.Herein,a co-activation strategy is proposed,namely through phosphorus(P)doping and the loading of CoAl-layered double hydroxides(CoAl-LDHs)cocatalysts.Unexpectedly,the integrated system,CoAl-LDHs/P-Fe_(2)O_(3) photoanode,exhibits an outstanding photocurrent density of 1.56 mA/cm^(2) at 1.23 V(vs.reversible hydrogen electrode,RHE),under AM 1.5 G,which is 2.6 times of pureα-Fe_(2)O_(3).Systematic studies reveal that the remarkable PEC performance is attributed to accelerated surface OER kinetics and enhanced carrier separation efficiency.This work provides a feasible strategy to enhance the PEC performance of hematite photoanodes.