Synthesis of a single-crystal Fe2O3 nanowire array based on stress-induced atomic diffusion used for solar water splitting

Abstract

In this study, we successfully fabricated a single-crystal Fe2 O3 nanowire array based on stress-induced atomic diffusion and used this array as the photoelectrode for solar water splitting. With the surface polishing treatment on the sample surface, the density of the Fe2 O3 nanowire array reached up to 28.75 wire µm−2 when heated for 90 min at 600°C. The photocurrent density of the optimized sample was 0.9 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode in a three-electrode system under AM 1.5 G illumination. The incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency was 6.8% at 400 nm.