Ni-Doped BiVO4 photoanode for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting

Meihong Chen; Xiaobo Chang; Can Li; Hongqiang Wang; Lichao Jia

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.096

Ni-Doped BiVO₄ photoanode for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jun 15:640:162-169. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.096. Epub 2023 Feb 21.

Authors

Meihong Chen¹, Xiaobo Chang¹, Can Li¹, Hongqiang Wang², Lichao Jia³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices, Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, 620 West Chang'an Street, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710119, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Labortary of Graphene, Xi'an 710072, PR China. Electronic address: hongqiang.wang@nwpu.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices, Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, 620 West Chang'an Street, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710119, China. Electronic address: lichaojia@snnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 36848769
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.096

Abstract

BiVO₄ (BVO) based photoanode is one of the most mega-potential materials for solar water splitting while suffers from poor charge transfer and separation efficiency limit its practical application. Herein, FeOOH/Ni-BiVO₄ photoanode synthesized by the facile wet chemical method were investigated for improved charge transport and separation efficiency. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurements demonstrate that the water oxidation photocurrent density can reach as high as 3.02 mA cm^-2 at 1.23 V vs RHE, and the surface separation efficiency can be boosted to 73.3 %, which increases around 4 times comparing with that of pure sample. Further depth studies showed that the Ni doping can effectively promote hole transport/trapping and introduce more active sites for the oxidation of water, while FeOOH co-catalyst could passivate the Ni-BiVO₄ photoanode surface. This work provides a model for the design of BiVO₄-based photoanodes with combined thermodynamic and kinetic advantages.

Keywords: BiVO(4); FeOOH cocatalyst; Ni-BiVO(4); Photoelectrochemical water splitting.