Cooperative Catalytic Effect of ZrO₂ and α-Fe₂O₃ Nanoparticles on BiVO₄ Photoanodes for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

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• 作者：Maged N. Shaddad ; Mohamed A. Ghanem ; Abdullah M. Al-Mayouf ; Sixto Gimenez ; Juan Bisquert and Isaac Herraiz-Cardona
• 刊名：ChemSusChem
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：October 6, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：9
• 期：19
• 页码：2779-2783
• 全文大小：1344K
• ISSN：1864-564X

文摘

Photoelectrochemical water splitting with metal oxide semiconductors offers a cost-competitive alternative for the generation of solar fuels. Most of the materials studied so far suffer from poor charge-transfer kinetics at the semiconductor/liquid interface, making compulsory the use of catalytic layers to overcome the large overpotentials required for the water oxidation reaction. Herein, we report a very soft electrolytic synthesis deposition method, which allows remarkably enhanced water oxidation kinetics of BiVO₄ photoanodes by the sequential addition of Zr and Fe precursors. Upon a heat treatment cycle, these precursors are converted into monoclinic ZrO₂ and α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles, which mainly act as catalysts, leading to a five-fold increase of the water oxidation photocurrent of BiVO₄. This method provides a versatile platform that is easy to apply to different semiconductor materials, fully reproducible, and facile to scale-up on large area conductive substrates with attractive implications for technological deployment.