Transition-metal-doped Fe2O3 nanoparticles for oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Hematite (α-Fe2O3) has been extensively studied as a promising photocatalyst, with the capacity to split water under visible light. To tune its electronic structure and improve the performance for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), high-quality single crystals of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized and doped by various transition metals (M=V, Cr, Mn, Zn, Co, Ni, Cu, Nb, Mo, Ti) by a molten-salt flux method. Optical, electronic and catalytic properties of transition-metal-doped α-Fe2O3 (TM-doped α-Fe2O3) have been systematically investigated. Cobalt has been identified as the best dopant for α-Fe2O3, reducing the OER overpotential by 0.16 V with respect to the undoped.