Talibawo, JoanKyesmen, Pannan IsaCyulinyana, Marie C.Diale, M. (Mmantsae Moche)2023-09-262023-09-262022-08-27Talibawo, J.; Kyesmen, P.I.; Cyulinyana, M.C.; Diale, M. Facile Zn and Ni Co-Doped Hematite Nanorods for Efficient Photocatalytic Water Oxidation. Nanomaterials 2022, 12, 2961. https://DOI.org/10.3390/nano12172961.2079-499110.3390/nano12172961http://hdl.handle.net/2263/92417DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data generated and or analyzed in this work can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.In this work, we report the effect of zinc (Zn) and nickel (Ni) co-doping of hydrothermally synthesized hematite nanorods prepared on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates for enhanced photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Seeded hematite nanorods (NRs) were facilely doped with a fixed concentration of 3 mM Zn and varied concentrations of 0, 3, 5, 7, and 9 mM Ni. The samples were observed to have a largely uniform morphology of vertically aligned NRs with slight inclinations. The samples showed high photon absorption within the visible spectrum due to their bandgaps, which ranged between 1.9–2.2 eV. The highest photocurrent density of 0.072 mA/cm2 at 1.5 V vs. a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) was realized for the 3 mM Zn/7 mM Ni NRs sample. This photocurrent was 279% higher compared to the value observed for pristine hematite NRs. The Mott–Schottky results reveal an increase in donor density values with increasing Ni dopant concentration. The 3 mM Zn/7 mM Ni NRs sample produced the highest donor concentration of 2.89 1019 (cm3), which was 2.1 times higher than that of pristine hematite. This work demonstrates the role of Zn and Ni co-dopants in enhancing the photocatalytic water oxidation of hematite nanorods for the generation of hydrogen.en© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.Hematite nanorodsZinc/nickel co-dopingPhotocurrentFluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)Photoelectrochemical (PEC)Water splittingPEC water oxidationSDG-06: Clean water and sanitationArticle