To address the growing need to produce carbon-free energy on a global scale, we have synthesized and characterized arrays of iron-oxide nanostructures for use as photoelectrodes to directly convert sunlight to chemical fuels.  Using an iterative and systematic approach to synthesis, we seek to establish new methods to produce iron-based oxides with unique chemical compositions and nanometer-scale architectures. We have used anodic electrodeposition with a polymer directing agent to grow self-assembled nanostructured arrays to form low-cost photoelectrodes, composed of elements that are abundant and non-toxic, that are capable of driving water oxidation at low over-potentials.We have successfully made iron-oxide nanostructured electrodes that show increased photocurrent density at the oxygen evolution potential under simulated solar illumination in 1 M NaOH when synthesized using a directing agent.  Addition of polymer is found to affect both charge carrier collection and increase photocatalytic properties.  Characterization of electrodes by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy reveals how the physical structure is changed by addition of polymer.  Our ongoing work to aims to correlate the structure of these novel materials with their photoelectrochemical properties to better understand how compositional variations, in tandem with electrode morphology, can be used to optimize performance of working solar cells.

Synthesis and characterization of iron-oxide nanostructured photoelectrodes made by anodic electrodeposition for water oxidation

247th National Meeting (2014)

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