Iron oxide (Fe2O3)has been of considerable interest in its use as a photoelectrode
because of small band gap of about 2.1 eV, low cost, and good stability in aqueous
solution, but the reported photocurrent quantum efficiency of Fe2O3
is relatively low.
Also the recombination of electrons and holes on account of low mobilities of holes and
trapping of electrons by oxygen-deficient iron sites were considered to be responsible for the
low conductivities and poor photocurrent efficiencies of Fe2O3
Thin films of Nickel oxide doped Fe2O3
have been prepared by chemical pyrolysis
technique. A laboratory designed glass atomizer was used for spraying the aqueous solution,
which has an output nozzle about 1 mm. The films were deposited on preheated cleaned glass
substrates at a temperature of 400 °C. A 0.1 M for both NiCl2
(Sigma Aldrich UK) and FeCl3
(Merck Chemicals Germany) diluted with redistilled water and a few drops of HCl were used
to obtain the starting solution for deposition. Moreover, volumetric concentration of NiO 1%
was achieved the optimized conditions have been arriving at the following parameters; spray
time was 10 s and the spray interval 2 min was kept constant. The carrier gas (filtered
compressed air) was maintained at a pressure of 105Nm-2
, and the distance between nozzle
and substrate was about 30 cm ±1 cm.