Precursor Development for Aerosol-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition of α-Fe
            2O
            3 and BiFeO
            3 as Effective Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Charles Brown; Thom R. Harris-Lee; Quan Yee Tey; Joe C. Goodall; Matthew Surman; Meng Nan  Chong; Andrew L. Johnson

doi:10.1002/ejic.202500333

Precursor Development for Aerosol-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition of α-Fe ₂O ₃ and BiFeO ₃ as Effective Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Charles Brown, Thom R. Harris-Lee, Quan Yee Tey, Joe C. Goodall, Matthew Surman, Meng Nan Chong, Andrew L. Johnson

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (SciVal)

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting holds great potential to convert solar energy into hydrogen fuel, establishing an effective method for long-term renewable energy storage. Herein, a simple and effective approach is presented for fabricating thin films of α-Fe ₂O ₃ and BiFeO ₃ for use as PEC photoanodes via aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD). A new Fe(III) precursor bearing an amino-tris-tert-butoxide ligand is designed and coupled with a Bi-based precursor bearing the same ligand framework to deposit nanostructured films of α-Fe ₂O ₃ and BiFeO ₃ with high phase purity. Under 1 sun solar irradiation α-Fe ₂O ₃ and BiFeO ₃ yielded a photocurrent density of 0.38 and 0.42 mA cm ⁻¹ at 1.23 V _RHE, respectively. A study reveals that the bespoke precursors exhibit remarkable compatibility with one another, producing films of significantly higher quality compared to those produced with more conventional precursors not optimized for AACVD.

Original language	English
Article number	e2500333
Journal	European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry
Early online date	13 Aug 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/ejic.202500333
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 13 Aug 2025

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Funding

The authors would like to express their gratitude for the financial support provided by the Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change, University of Bath, UK, and Department of Chemistry, Monash University, Australia, for PhD studentships on the Bath/Monash program (C.B. and T.R.H.\u2010L), and we thank the EPSRC (UK) for funding, grant no. EP/X025195/1 (J.C.G.) and EP/G03768X/1 (Ph.D. Studentship to M.S.). The authors also greatly appreciate the technical support and assistance from the Material and Chemical Characterisation Facility (MC) at the University of Bath.

Funders	Funder number
Monash University
Institute of Sustainability
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council	EP/G03768X/1, EP/X025195/1

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Keywords

bismuth ferrite
hematite
photocatalysis
precursors
water splitting

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Inorganic Chemistry

Access to Document

10.1002/ejic.202500333Licence: CC BY

Cite this

Brown, C., Harris-Lee, T. R., Tey, Q. Y., Goodall, J. C., Surman, M., Chong, M. N., & Johnson, A. L. (2025). Precursor Development for Aerosol-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition of α-Fe ₂O ₃ and BiFeO ₃ as Effective Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting. European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, Article e2500333. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejic.202500333

Precursor Development for Aerosol-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition of α-Fe ₂O ₃ and BiFeO ₃ as Effective Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting. / Brown, Charles; Harris-Lee, Thom R.; Tey, Quan Yee et al.
In: European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 13.08.2025.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Brown C, Harris-Lee TR, Tey QY, Goodall JC, Surman M, Chong MN et al. Precursor Development for Aerosol-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition of α-Fe ₂O ₃ and BiFeO ₃ as Effective Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting. European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry. 2025 Aug 13;e2500333. Epub 2025 Aug 13. doi: 10.1002/ejic.202500333

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abstract = "Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting holds great potential to convert solar energy into hydrogen fuel, establishing an effective method for long-term renewable energy storage. Herein, a simple and effective approach is presented for fabricating thin films of α-Fe 2O 3 and BiFeO 3 for use as PEC photoanodes via aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD). A new Fe(III) precursor bearing an amino-tris-tert-butoxide ligand is designed and coupled with a Bi-based precursor bearing the same ligand framework to deposit nanostructured films of α-Fe 2O 3 and BiFeO 3 with high phase purity. Under 1 sun solar irradiation α-Fe 2O 3 and BiFeO 3 yielded a photocurrent density of 0.38 and 0.42 mA cm −1 at 1.23 V RHE, respectively. A study reveals that the bespoke precursors exhibit remarkable compatibility with one another, producing films of significantly higher quality compared to those produced with more conventional precursors not optimized for AACVD.",

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