In
this study, we introduce a plasmonic TiO2–Fe2O3 cocatalyst photoelectrode to improve the water-splitting
process. The absorption of incident photons and the separation rate
of photogenerated electron–hole pairs are enhanced due to the
broadband absorption and strong electric field of the composite formed
from these two metal oxide semiconductors and plasmonic silver nanoparticles
(Ag NPs). Plasmonic TiO2–Fe2O3 cocatalyst photoelectrodes were fabricated using a precipitation
and solution processing method. Under visible light irradiation, a
photocurrent that is 20 times higher than that of pure Fe2O3 was observed using an optimized ratio of the plasmonic
TiO2–Fe2O3/Ag cocatalyst.
The mechanism for this enhancement in the plasmonic cocatalyst system
was investigated using different structural configurations of the
photoelectrode. Both the crystallinity and absorption band edge of
the TiO2–Fe2O3 cocatalyst
were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and ultraviolet–visible
absorption spectroscopy (UV–vis). Furthermore, the spatial
distribution of the photocurrent was investigated using this plasmonic
cocatalyst system.
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