BiVO 4 -Based Heterojunction Photocathode for High-Performance Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Peroxide Production

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