BiVO4-Based Heterojunction Photocathode for High-Performance Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Peroxide Production

Shaobo Shi; Yurou Song; Yuye Jiao; Dingfeng Jin; Zhuwei Li; Huimin Xie; Lihua Gao; Licheng Sun; Jungang Hou

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c00901

BiVO₄-Based Heterojunction Photocathode for High-Performance Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Peroxide Production

Nano Lett. 2024 Apr 29. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c00901. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Shaobo Shi¹, Yurou Song¹, Yuye Jiao¹, Dingfeng Jin¹, Zhuwei Li¹, Huimin Xie¹, Lihua Gao¹, Licheng Sun^{2

3}, Jungang Hou¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Frontiers Science Center for Smart Materials Oriented Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, P. R. China.
² Center of Artificial Photosynthesis for Solar Fuels and Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, P. R. China.
³ Department of Chemistry, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 10044 Stockholm, Sweden.

PMID: 38682868
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c00901

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells provide a promising solution for the synthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). Herein, an integrated photocathode of p-type BiVO₄ (p-BVO) array with tetragonal zircon structure coupled with different metal oxide (MO_x, M = Sn, Ti, Ni, and Zn) heterostructure and NiNC cocatalyst (p-BVO/MO_x/NiNC) was synthesized for the PEC oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in production of H₂O₂. The p-BVO/SnO₂/NiNC array achieves the production rate 65.46 μmol L^-1 h^-1 of H₂O₂ with a Faraday efficiency (FE) of 76.12%. Combined with the H₂O₂ generation of water oxidation from the n-type Mo-doped BiVO₄ (n-Mo:BVO) photoanode, the unbiased photoelectrochemical cell composed of a p-BVO/SnO₂/NiNC photocathode and n-Mo:BVO photoanode achieves a total FE of 97.67% for H₂O₂ generation. The large area BiVO₄-based tandem cell of 3 × 3 cm² can reach a total H₂O₂ production yield of 338.84 μmol L^-1. This work paves the way for the rational design and fabrication of artificial photosynthetic cells for the production of liquid solar fuel.

Keywords: BiVO4-based tandem system; artificial photosynthetic cells; photoanode; photocathode; photoelectrochemical H2O2 production.