Selective Deposition of Ag3PO4 on Specific Facet of BiVO4 Nanoplate for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Performance

Abstract

The modification of semiconductor photoanode is a reliable approach to enhance its water oxidation property. In this study, a BiVO4 nanoplate array photoanode is prepared via hydrothermal method, and the BiVO4/Ag3PO4 heterojunction is constructed on electron‐dominant crystal faces and hole‐dominant crystal faces of BiVO4 via different deposition methods, respectively. The hole‐dominant crystal face is in favor of the transfer and reaction of holes, while the electron‐dominant face is benefit for electrons. Compared with pristine BiVO4 photoanode, the performance of heterojunction photoanode based on the hole‐dominant crystal face exhibits a significant increase, while that of electron‐dominant face only shows a slight increase. It is demonstrated that the heterojunction on the hole‐dominant face exhibits better performance, which is because the hole‐dominant face can facilitate the separation of photo‐generated holes and electrons more effectively than the electron‐dominant face. This approach provides a new strategy to reasonably fabricate efficient heterojunction on photoanodes.