Justine Sageka Nyarige, Tjaart P.J. Krüger, Mmantsae Diale

Nanostructured hematite films were synthesized using spray pyrolysis and chemical bath deposition. X-ray diffraction measurements revealed sharp diffraction peaks of (012), (104) and (110), describing corundum hexagonal structure of hematite. Raman spectroscopy confirmed polycrystalline hematite symmetry with two Eg and five A1g vibrational phonon modes. Optical studies reported variation of absorbance as precursor concentration increased. The onset absorbance ranged from 595 nm to 650 nm. Scanning electron microscopy reported the shape transformation of nanoparticles to nanospheres. The average grain size obtained for the nanostructures ranged from 41.0 ± 0.5 nm for pristine film to 6.0 ± 0.5 nm for those synthesized with a FeCl3.6H2O:L-arginine concentration ratio of 1:3. A photocurrent density of 1.6 × 10−3 mA/cm2 for pristine hematite was produced while 2.7 × 10−3 mA/cm2, 5.4 × 10−3 mA/cm2, and, 9.8 × 10−3 mA/cm2 current densities were obtained for 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 Fe3.6H2O:L-arginine respectively.