Chem. J. Chinese Universities ›› 2022, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (4): 20220017.doi: 10.7503/cjcu20220017

• Physical Chemistry • Previous Articles    

Preparation and Photoelectrochemical Performance of BiVO4/CuBi2O4 Thin Film Photoanodes

LIU Jiaqi, LI Tianbao()   

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering,Taiyuan University of Technology,Taiyuan 030024,China
  • Received:2022-01-07 Online:2022-04-10 Published:2022-02-16
  • Contact: LI Tianbao E-mail:litianbao@tyut.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    the Basic Research Project of Shanxi Province, China(20210302123125);the New Materials and Chemical Technology Research and Development Project of Zhejiang University, Shanxi Province, China(2021SX-AT006)

Abstract:

The poor separation and significant recombination of electron-hole pairs and slow transfer mobility of charge carriers limit the performance of BiVO4 for photoelectrochemical(PEC) water splitting. Herein, we present the ternary metal oxide deposition of p-type CuBi2O4 as a route to obtain a novel photocatalyst layer on BiVO4 to form n-BiVO4/p-CuBi2O4 a novel composite photoanode for PEC water splitting. It is found that BiVO4/CuBi2O4 and BiVO4/CuBi2O4/Co-Pi thin films addition show better PEC performance compared with bare BiVO4 under visible illumination. At 1.23 V(vs. RHE) potential, BiVO4/CuBi2O4 thin film show excellent PEC water oxidation performance, and the photocurrent density reaches 2.8 mA/cm2. The photocurrent density of BiVO4/CuBi2O4/Co-Pi thin film loaded with cobalt-phosphate(Co-Pi) reaches 4.45 mA/cm2. The curront densities are 3.1 times and 4.9 times of bare BiVO4, respectively. BiVO4 and CuBi2O4 construct a p-n heterojunction to boost its poor electron-hole separation and transport properties using the built-in electrical potential. The X-ray diffraction(XRD), UV-Vis measurements, electro-chemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS) and schematic diagram of band structure absorption spectra reveal the enhanced PEC performance and light stability of the prepared electrode materials, when it is applied to PEC water splitting. Based on the study, we have gained an in-depth understanding of the BiVO4/CuBi2O4 and BiVO4/CuBi2O4/Co-Pi composite as high potential in efficient PEC water splitting devices.

Key words: BiVO4, p-n Heterojunction, Photoanode, Internal electric field, Photoelectrochemical water splitting

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