LAUSR

Abstract As one of the most promising photoanode materials, the performance of hematite has been greatly hampered by poor conductivity and severe charge recombination. Here, we report a simple synthesis of N-doped carbon layer coated hematite via low temperature chemical vapor deposition method, where hydroxytyramine hydrochloride (abbreviated as DA) was used as the carbon precursor and hematite thin films as the substrate. The thickness of carbon layers can be adjusted by the amount of DA. The photocurrent densities of the carbon coated hematite nanorods reached up to 1.63 mA cm−2. Based on TEM, XPS, Mott-Schottky and EIS measurement, it was found that the carbon overlayers could simultaneously improve the conductivity in the bulk and passivate the surface state. The correlation between the thickness of carbon layers and the PEC properties were also discussed in detail.