Black phosphorene as a hole extraction layer boosting solar water splitting of oxygen evolution catalysts

Kan Zhang; Bingjun Jin; Cheolwoo Park; Yoonjun Cho; Xiufeng Song; Xinjian Shi; Shengli Zhang; Wooyul Kim; Haibo Zeng; Jong Hyeok Park

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10034-1

Black phosphorene as a hole extraction layer boosting solar water splitting of oxygen evolution catalysts

Nat Commun. 2019 May 1;10(1):2001. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10034-1.

Authors

Kan Zhang^{1

2}, Bingjun Jin³, Cheolwoo Park⁴, Yoonjun Cho³, Xiufeng Song⁵, Xinjian Shi⁶, Shengli Zhang⁵, Wooyul Kim⁴, Haibo Zeng⁷, Jong Hyeok Park⁸

Affiliations

¹ MIIT Key Laboratory of Advanced Display Material and Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China. zhangkan@njust.edu.cn.
² Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 120-749, Republic of Korea. zhangkan@njust.edu.cn.
³ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 120-749, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, 04310, Republic of Korea.
⁵ MIIT Key Laboratory of Advanced Display Material and Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China.
⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
⁷ MIIT Key Laboratory of Advanced Display Material and Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China. zeng.haibo@njust.edu.cn.
⁸ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 120-749, Republic of Korea. lutts@yonsei.ac.kr.

Abstract

As the development of oxygen evolution co-catalysts (OECs) is being actively undertaken, the tailored integration of those OECs with photoanodes is expected to be a plausible avenue for achieving highly efficient solar-assisted water splitting. Here, we demonstrate that a black phosphorene (BP) layer, inserted between the OEC and BiVO₄ can improve the photoelectrochemical performance of pre-optimized OEC/BiVO₄ (OEC: NiOOH, MnO_x, and CoOOH) systems by 1.2∼1.6-fold, while the OEC overlayer, in turn, can suppress BP self-oxidation to achieve a high durability. A photocurrent density of 4.48 mA·cm^-2 at 1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) is achieved by the NiOOH/BP/BiVO₄ photoanode. It is found that the intrinsic p-type BP can boost hole extraction from BiVO₄ and prolong holes trapping lifetime on BiVO₄ surface. This work sheds light on the design of BP-based devices for application in solar to fuel conversion, and also suggests a promising nexus between semiconductor and electrocatalyst.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Grants and funding

NRF-2017M3A7B4041987/National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)/International