Nitrogen-doped cobalt-iron oxide cocatalyst boosting photoelectrochemical water splitting of BiVO4 photoanodes

Photoelectrochemical water splitting using bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) photoanodes is of special interest for solar energy utilization. However, its solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency is hindered by unfavorable surface reaction kinetics, which requires the development of efficient cocatalysts. Her...

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Veröffentlicht in:Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Environmental, 2023-01, Vol.320, p.121947, Article 121947
Hauptverfasser: Lin, Jingyi, Han, Xiujun, Liu, Siyuan, Lv, Ying, Li, Xin, Zhao, Yixin, Li, Yao, Wang, Lianzhou, Zhu, Shenmin
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Photoelectrochemical water splitting using bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) photoanodes is of special interest for solar energy utilization. However, its solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency is hindered by unfavorable surface reaction kinetics, which requires the development of efficient cocatalysts. Here, a nitrogen-doped cobalt-iron oxide (N-CFO) cocatalyst layer is designed on the BiVO4 (BVO) by using Prussian blue analogue (PBA) precursor. The N-CFO/BVO photoanode exhibits an improved photocurrent density of 4.83 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode under AM 1.5 G illumination, which is 4.13-fold that of pure BVO photoanode and surpasses that of CFO/BVO with oxygen vacancies. Mechanism studies reveal that compared with oxygen vacancies, nitrogen dopants greatly enhance electrical conductivity and boost reaction activity of cobalt-iron oxide. Owing to the diverse composition of PBAs, this work provides a novel insight into the effects of nitrogen dopants, as well as a general strategy to design efficient and cheap cocatalysts for photoanodes. [Display omitted] •The incorporation of nitrogen dopants enhances both electrical conductivity and reaction activity of metal oxides.•The diversity of Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) guarantees the compositional tunability of cocatalyst layers.•Nitrogen-doped cobalt-iron oxide (N-CFO) cocatalyst is successfully deposited on the BiVO4 (BVO) by using PBA precursor.•The N-CFO/BVO photoanode exhibits an improved photocurrent density of 4.83 mA/cm2 at 1.23 VRHE under AM 1.5 G illumination.
ISSN:0926-3373
1873-3883
DOI:10.1016/j.apcatb.2022.121947