Zinc oxide-Iron-Aluminum nanostructured cover for photoelectrochemical water splitting
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Zinc oxide-Iron-Aluminum nanostructured cover for photoelectrochemical water splitting L. Arriaga-Arjona1, G. Carbajal-Franco1 Division of Graduate Studies and Research. Instituto Tecnológico de Toluca - TecNM - SEP. Av. Tecnológico s/n. Colonia Agrícola Buenavista. C.P. 52149. México.
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ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to study the viability of photocatalytic water splitting using ASTM A792 Zn-Al-Fe commercial metallic sheets as substrates for electrodeposited and corroded electrodes. The nanostructures were synthesized in two different procedures: via electrodeposition of migrating species from one electrode to another and from the remaining materials after corrosion of electrodes during electrodeposition, both procedures were done immersing the metallic electrodes in FeCl 3 salts dissolved in water as cell electrolyte. The released or remaining Zinc-Aluminum-Iron can be used for the construction of nanostructures or as co-catalyst on the coating over the substrate. Actual EDS-SEM data reveals incorporation of Zinc on dendrite-like structures with traces of Al-Fe due to material release and further electrodeposition on working electrode, meanwhile, dendrite-like structures with an increased amount of Iron were obtained from the corrosion in the auxiliary electrode. Finally, samples were tested with lineal voltammetry to measure the photocurrent activity as indicator of photocatalytic viability for water splitting, obtaining an improvement of 31 mA/cm2 over natural photovoltaic current generation of substrates with higher Zinc concentrations under UV-Visible radiation. INTRODUCTION The effects of global warming and the large rate of air pollutants released to our atmosphere as a result of everyday human activities has taken importance over the years. Many approaches can be taken in order to contribute to the development of new clean and renewable technologies, and is of great importance to focus on finding a viable and environment-friendly energy source. One of the alternatives for fuels that has many opportunities for actual technological development is the use of hydrogen but its great disadvantage is the elevated cost of its production in sufficient amount for the advancement of our civilization. Actual research is in process to create clean and cheap ways for hydrogen production such as water photocatalysis, favored by the use of solar energy over nanostructured semiconductor metal oxides. Such materials make possible its use as catalyst for water splitting and further release of hydrogen and oxygen [1][2]. There are many ways to synthesize semiconductor nanostructures [3], like electrodeposition where electrochemical cells are used to corrode and deposit metals from electrolytes and electrodes on diverse substrates [4], resulting in adequate photocatalyzers [5]. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS The electrochemical cell used for deposition is composed of two chemically cleaned ASTM A792 Zinc-Aluminum alloy-coated Iron substrates that are originally manufactured as a multilayered material (Figure 1a) where Iron is
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