Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Shaddad, Maged N
• Ghanem, Mohamed A
• Al-Mayouf, Abdullah M
• Gimenez, Sixto
• Bisquert, Juan
• Herraiz-Cardona, Isaac

Titel

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

Ist Teil von

• ChemSusChem, 2016-10, Vol.9 (19), p.2779

Ort / Verlag

Weinheim: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Wiley Online Library Journals Frontfile Complete

Beschreibungen/Notizen

•   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 [alpha]-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.