Research & Reviews: Journal of Material Sciences
MenuISSN:2321-6212
ISSN:2321-6212
Hussein Alrobei and Manoj K Ram
University of South Florida, USA
ScientificTracks Abstracts: Res. Rev. J Mat. Sci
The alpha (α)- hematite (Fe2O3) nanomaterials are attractive due its optical, electrical, and photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties. Several transition metal ions (Ti, Al, Pt, Zn etc.) have been doped to enhance low conductivity, surface kinetic, carrier diffusion, and decreasing of the photocorrosion. However, little attention is paid to dope dichalcogenide 2D- molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) with α-Fe2O3. The MoS2 has shown interesting photo-activity due to its bonding, chemical composition and doping properties. So, we have synthesized nanocomposite α-Fe2O3-MoS2 using sol-gel technique. The α-Fe2O3- MoS2 nanomaterial was characterized using combination of physical techniques such as SEM, X-ray diffraction, UV-vis, FTIR and Raman techniques, respectively. The photocurrent, electrode/electrolyte interface of α-Fe2O3-MoS2 nanocomposite films were investigated using electrochemical techniques. The rhombohedral structure with lower band gap is obtained using X-ray diffraction and UV-vis measurements for α-Fe2O3-MoS2 films. Besides, α-Fe2O3-MoS2 film revealed improved hydrogen production compared to α-Fe2O3 as well as aluminum doped α-Fe2O3 nanostructured films. Later, mechanism of photoelectrochemical water splitting in nanocomposite α-Fe2O3-MoS2 films is understood through band diagram.
Hussein Alrobei is a Ph.D student under the supervision of Manoj K Ram. He has background in the field of photoelectrochemical, advanced materials, polymers and energy. He has been involved on photoelectrochemical properties on various metal oxides, polymers and conducting polymers, and recently his patent on nano-hybrid structured regioregular polyhexylthiophene blend films for production of photoelectrochemical energy has been approved.