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Aluminium doping in iron oxide nanoporous structures to tailor material properties for photocatalytic applications

Journal of Applied Electrochemistry volume 50, pages 81–92 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

In this study, metal doping of iron oxide nanostructures grown by anodization is successfully achieved by the simple cost effective technique of electrochemical doping. Structural and morphological characterizations of all the samples are done using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in conjunction with field-emission scanning electron microscopy, respectively. A detailed analysis of the X-ray photoelectron spectra is done for all the samples to obtain the effect of aluminium doping on the multiplet peak positions of Fe 2p and different species of oxygen. Analysis of the valence band X-ray photoelectron spectra (VB XPS) reveals a displacement of ‘valence band edge’ towards higher energy on doping. The VB XPS coupled with optical data is used for evaluating the shift in the Fermi level towards the conduction band minimum, which indicates the formation of donor defect level on doping. The reduction in band gap from 1.96 to 1.72 eV and enhanced electrical conductivity on doping are observed to produce an improvement in the photo catalytic activity for aluminium-doped nanostructures compared to undoped.

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Acknowledgements

The first author would like to acknowledge DST for funding through Woman Scientist Scheme (WOS-A) (Ref No: SR/WOS-A/PM-7/2017).Authors also acknowledge KSCSTE for funding through a major research project (Ref No: KSCSTE/5131/2017-SRSPS) and DST-SERB for the project (Ref No: ECR/2016/001708).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Thin Film Research Lab, Department of Physics, Union Christian College, Aluva, Kerala, 683102, India

    Julie Ann Joseph, Sinitha B. Nair, Shinto Babu, V. K. Shinoj & Rachel Reena Philip

  2. Department of physics, St. Albert’s College (Autonomous), Ernakulam, Kerala, India

    K. Aijo John

  3. Facultad de Ingenieria Mecanica y Electrica, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Av. Universidad s/n, Cd. Universitaria, San Nicolas de los Garza, Nuevo, 66455, Leon, Mexico

    Sadasivan Shaji

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  1. Julie Ann Joseph
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Joseph, J.A., Nair, S.B., John, K.A. et al. Aluminium doping in iron oxide nanoporous structures to tailor material properties for photocatalytic applications. J Appl Electrochem 50, 81–92 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-019-01371-6

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