Abstract
BiVO4 is ubiquitously known for its potential use as photoanode for PEC-WS due to its well-suited band structure; nevertheless, it suffers from the major drawback of a slow electron hole separation and transportation. We have demonstrated the one-pot synthesis of BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid photoanodes on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)-coated glass substrate using a facile and cost-effective hydrothermal method. The structural, morphological, and optical properties were extensively examined, confirming the formation of hybrid heterostructures. Ternary BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid photoanode electrode showed enhanced PEC performance with photocurrent densities (Jph) of ~2.25 and 5 mA/cm2 for the water and sulfate oxidation, respectively. In addition, the BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid photoanode can convert up to 3.5% of the illuminating light into photocurrent, and exhibits a 0.9% solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency. Similarly, the photocatalytic methylene blue (MB) degradation afforded the highest degradation rate constant value (k = 1.03 × 10−2 min−1) for the BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid sample. It is noteworthy that the PEC/photocatalytic performance of BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid architectures is markedly more significant than that of the pristine BiVO4 sample. The enhanced PEC/photocatalytic performance of the synthesized BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid sample can be attributed to the combined effects of strong visible light absorption, improved charge separation-transportation and excellent surface properties.
Highlights
In the lack of highly efficient, robust, and inexpensive photoelectrode materials
No peaks of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) appeared in the diffraction pattern, which might be due to the weak diffraction intensities or low amount of rGO within the hybrid sample
This study highlighted the feasibility of a facile and cost effective synthesis of photoanodes by a hydrothermal method to incorporate/integrate Ag and rGO into BiVO4 nanostructures, and investigated their PEC-WS and photocatalytic methylene blue (MB) degradation performances
Summary
In the lack of highly efficient, robust, and inexpensive photoelectrode materials. The main parameters accounting for the PEC-WS cell performance are (i) significant absorption of the solar spectrum by photocatalytic materials, (ii) efficient separation of the photoexcited charge carriers and their transport, (iii) reusability/stability of the photocatalytic materials, and (iv) surface chemical reactions[4, 5]. The foremost reason for the fast recombination of e−/ h+ is the short diffusion length of the photogenerated charge carriers in the bulk of BiVO411, 12 To circumvent these limitations of BiVO4, several strategies such as the design of nanostructures, metal doping (Mo, W)[10, 13], and heterostructure construction with other semiconductors[14, 15] have been employed. Semiconductor heterostructures have attracted great attention because of their strong absorption in the visible light region due to the so-called localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect[14] This LSPR effect helps to improve the optical-to-chemical energy conversion efficiency, interfacial charge transfer kinetics, and photostability.
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