ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
5 years ago

Smoothing Surface Trapping States in 3D Coral-Like CoOOH-Wrapped-BiVO4 for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation

Smoothing Surface Trapping States in 3D Coral-Like CoOOH-Wrapped-BiVO4 for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation
Fumin Tang, Xu Zhao, Qinghua Liu, Weiren Cheng, Hui Su
Highly efficient oxygen evolution driven by abundant sunlight is a key to realize overall water splitting for large-scale conversion of renewable energy. Here, we report a strategy for the interfacial atomic and electronic coupling of layered CoOOH and BiVO4 to deactivate the surface trapping states and suppress the charge-carrier recombination for high photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation activity. The successful synthesis of a 3D ultrathin-CoOOH-overlayer-coated coral-like BiVO4 photoanode effectively tailors the migration route of photocarriers on the semiconductor/liquid interface to realize a great increase of ∼200% in the photovoltage relative to bare BiVO4, consequently decreasing the corresponding onset potential of PEC water splitting from 0.60 to 0.20 VRHE. As a result, the unique CoOOH/BiVO4 photoanode could efficiently perform PEC water oxidation in a neutral aqueous solution (pH = 7) with a high photocurrent density of 4.0 mA/cm2 at 1.23 VRHE and a prominent quantum efficiency of 65% at 450 nm. Electronic structural characterizations and theoretical calculations reveal that the combination of layered CoOOH and BiVO4 forming interfacial oxo-bridge bonding could greatly eliminate surface trapping states and promote the direct transfer of photogenerated holes from the valence band to the surface water redox potential for water oxidation.

Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b15674

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b15674

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