Publication date: 22nd July 2026
The exploitation of renewable energy sources (such as sunlight), striving to produce alternative fuels, is one of the most pursued strategies to relieve the global energy thirst. With this aim, a viable but challenging approach consists in the development of photoelectrochemical cells.[1] These devices mimic the natural photosynthesis by storing solar energy as chemical energy in value-added compounds produced at two separated electrodes.
In this contribution, we will report on Hematite photoanodes, prepared via hydrothermal synthesis in the presence of a Ti(IV) precursor belonging to the family of MXenes. The latter are two-dimensional materials with general formula Mn+1XnTx (where M is an early transition, X is C and/or N, and T is a terminal surface group), recently reported to improve the performances of perovskite solar cells by inducing the formation of an interface dipole and tuning the interfacial band alignment.[2] The structure of the MXene of choice, namely Ti3C2Tx, is reported in Figure.
The MXene-modified photoanodes showed a significant improvement in terms of photocurrent (up to 3.0 mA/cm2 at 1.85 V vs RHE) when compared to Hematite electrodes not including such precursor in the synthetic route. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy, Intensity Modulated Photocurrent Spectroscopy and Transient Absorption Spectroscopy are comparatively applied to investigate the charge transfer dynamics transfer/transport in these modified photoanodes.
We acknowledge financial support by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU; Project Title: Decoupled production of solar fuels (Prot. P20229L2EE).
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