The potential versus current state of water splitting with hematite

Abstract

This review describes the potential of hematite as a photoanode material for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. The current understanding of key loss-mechanisms of hematite are introduced and correlated to performance enhancement strategies. The significant voltage loss associated with overcoming the competitive water oxidation and surface state recombination has recently been surmounted through a combination of high temperature annealing and surface modification with water oxidation catalysts. Substantial efforts have been made at nanostructuring electrodes to increase the charge separation efficiency without sacrificing light absorption. Even in optimized nanostructured electrodes, however, charge separation continues to be the primary barrier to achieving efficient water splitting with hematite. Specifically, significant depletion region recombination results in voltage dependant photocurrent which constrains the fill factor. Thus, future directions to enhance the efficiency of hematite electrodes are discussed with an emphasis on circumventing depletion region recombination.