Abstract
The photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting performance of BiVO4 is partially hindered by insufficient photoresponse in the spectral region with energy below the band gap. Here, we demonstrate that the PEC water splitting efficiency of BiVO4 electrodes can be effectively enhanced by decorating Pd nanoparticles (NPs) and nanorods (NRs). The results indicate that the Pd NPs and NRs with different surface plasmon resonance (SPR) features delivered an enhanced PEC water splitting performance in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) regions, respectively. Considering that there is barely no absorption overlap between Pd nanostructures and BiVO4 and the finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulation indicating there are substantial energetic hot electrons in the vicinity of Pd nanostructures, the enhanced PEC performance of Pd NP-decorated BiVO4 and Pd NR-decorated BiVO4 could both benefit from the hot electron injection mechanism instead of the plasmon resonance energy transfer process. Moreover, a combination of Pd NPs and NRs decorated on the BiVO4 electrodes leads to a broad-band enhancement across visible-NIR region.
Highlights
Solar hydrogen generation through photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting offers an efficient and sustainable solution to the global energy problem [1–5]
No Pd NPs and NRs can be observed in the Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image due to their small size (Fig. 2f, g), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) maps clearly show that Pd element presents a uniform distribution on the surface of BiVO4 film, with the Pd/Bi weight percentage being 2.17 %, indicating that Pd NPs and NRs are successfully decorated on the surface of BiVO4 film
EDX analyses for NP-BiVO4 and NR-BiVO4 electrodes show that the Pd/Bi weight percentages are 2.15 and 1.9 %, respectively
Summary
Solar hydrogen generation through photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting offers an efficient and sustainable solution to the global energy problem [1–5]. BiVO4 photoanodes suffer from rapid charge carrier recombination, slow water oxidation kinetics, and insufficient photoresponse in the spectral region with energy below the band gap of 2.4 eV [6], which limit its water splitting efficiency. Strategies such as doping [7–12], nanostructuring [13–18], and loading of oxygen evolution catalysts (OECs) [7, 9, 19, 20] have been adopted to improve the water splitting efficiency of BiVO4. Among these OECs, the Co-Pi and FeOOH catalysts can lead to a negative-shift of onset potentials of water oxidation and effectively enhance the magnitude of photocurrent [7, 9, 19] Through these strategies, the enhanced photoactivity of BiVO4 has only been achieved in the spectral region with energy above the band gap. To improve the PEC water splitting efficiency of BiVO4 in the spectral
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