Fe2TiO5 as an Efficient Co-catalyst To Improve the Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Performance of BiVO4

Yangqin Gao; Yandong Li; Guoqing Yang; Songsong Li; Nan Xiao; Boran Xu; Shuang Liu; Ping Qiu; Shijie Hao; Lei Ge

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b14141

Fe₂TiO₅ as an Efficient Co-catalyst To Improve the Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Performance of BiVO₄

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Nov 21;10(46):39713-39722. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b14141. Epub 2018 Nov 6.

Authors

Yangqin Gao, Yandong Li, Guoqing Yang, Songsong Li, Nan Xiao, Boran Xu, Shuang Liu, Ping Qiu, Shijie Hao, Lei Ge

PMID: 30346126
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b14141

Abstract

Fe₂TiO₅ was synthesized via the solvothermal method and adopted as co-catalyst to improve the photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting performance of BiVO₄ photoanode. After surface modification by Fe₂TiO₅, the BiVO₄/Fe₂TiO₅ photoanode shows a 300 mV cathodic shift in onset potential and 3 times enhancement in photocurrent, which delivers a photocurrent density of 3.2 mA/cm² at 1.23 V vs reverse hydrogen electrode. Systematic optical, electrochemical, and intensity-modulated photocurrent spectroscopy characterizations were performed to explore the role of Fe₂TiO₅ and reveal that the enhanced PEC performance is mainly caused by the surface passivation effect of Fe₂TiO₅.

Keywords: Fe2TiO5; bismuth vanadate; interfacial charge transfer; photoelectrochemical water splitting; surface passivation.