Highly efficient oxygen evolution driven by abundant sunlight is a key to realize overall water splitting for large-scale conversion of renewable energy. Here, we report a strategy for the interfacial atomic and electronic coupling of layered CoOOH and BiVO4 to deactivate the surface trapping states and suppress the charge-carrier recombination for high photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation activity. The successful synthesis of a 3D ultrathin-CoOOH-overlayer-coated coral-like BiVO4 photoanode effectively tailors the migration route of photocarriers on the semiconductor/liquid interface to realize a great increase of ∼200% in the photovoltage relative to bare BiVO4, consequently decreasing the corresponding onset potential of PEC water splitting from 0.60 to 0.20 VRHE. As a result, the unique CoOOH/BiVO4 photoanode could efficiently perform PEC water oxidation in a neutral aqueous solution (pH = 7) with a high photocurrent density of 4.0 mA/cm2 at 1.23 VRHE and a prominent quantum efficiency of 65% at 450 nm. Electronic structural characterizations and theoretical calculations reveal that the combination of layered CoOOH and BiVO4 forming interfacial oxo-bridge bonding could greatly eliminate surface trapping states and promote the direct transfer of photogenerated holes from the valence band to the surface water redox potential for water oxidation.
Keywords: interfacial coupling; onset potential; oxygen evolution; photoelectrochemical water splitting; surface trapping states.