Incorporating impurities into hematite is an effective approach to enhance the photo-electrochemical (PEC) water splitting performance of hematite photoanode. Here, we report an efficient W-incorporation in hematite (W-Fe2O3) to enhance the PEC performance by depositing a WO3 underlayer onto the FTO substrate. The W-incorporation dramatically enhances the photocurrent density of hematite by a factor of similar to 2. Moreover, it can be well coupled with Zr to achieve a high photocurrent of 2.0 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 V vs. RHE by simultaneously depositing a ZrO2 underlayer on the FTO substrate. A large cathodic shift of the onset potential up to 120 mV can also be obtained. The boosted PEC performance can be attributed to the synergistic effect of W and Zr in hematite, which can both improve the carrier density (by W-incorporation) and suppress the charge recombination (by Zr-passivation). (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.