Morphological Control of α-FeOOH Nanostructures by Electrodeposition

Herein, we developed a novel anodic electrodeposition route to prepare shape-controlled α-FeOOH thin films on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates in aqueous (NH4)2Fe(SO4)2 solutions. Different morphologies of α-FeOOH products, including platelets, rhombohedral rods, square rods, six-fold snowflakes, and hexagonal particles were obtained by controlling the growth rates of various facets of the deposit with appropriate capping agents. Furthermore, we demonstrated that α-FeOOH films can be transferred into α-Fe2O3 nanostructures with the same morphologies through a thermal annealing process.