Unraveling the Carrier Dynamics of BiVO4: A Femtosecond to Microsecond Transient Absorption Study
John Kennis a, Raoul Frese a, Judith van Santen a, Janneke Ravensbergen a, Fatwa Abdi b, Roel van de Krol b, Bernard Dam c
a Vrije University (VU) Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, Amsterdam, Netherlands
b Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, Julianalaan, 136, Delft, Netherlands
Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of September Meeting 2016 (NFM16)
Berlin, Germany, 2016 September 5th - 13th
Organizers: Marin Alexe, Enrique Cánovas, Celso de Mello Donega, Ivan Infante, Thomas Kirchartz, Maksym Kovalenko, Federico Rosei, Lukas Schmidt-Mende, Laurens Siebbeles, Peter Strasser, Teodor K Todorov, Roel van de Krol and Ulrike Woggon
Oral, Janneke Ravensbergen, presentation 433
Publication date: 14th June 2016

Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) is a promising semiconductor material for photoelectrochemical water splitting showing good visible light absorption and a high photochemical stability. To improve the performance of BiVO4, it is of key importance to understand its photophysics upon light absorption. Here we study the carrier dynamics of BiVO4 prepared by the spray pyrolysis method using broadband transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS), in thin films as well as in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell under water-splitting conditions. The use of a dual-laser setup consisting of electronically synchronized Ti:sapphire amplifiers enable us to measure the femtosecond to microsecond time scales in a single experiment. On the basis of this data, we propose a model of carrier dynamics that includes relaxation and trapping rates for electrons and holes. Hole trapping occurs in multiple phases, with the majority of the photogenerated holes being trapped with a time constant of 5 ps and a small fraction of this hole trapping taking place within the instrument response of 120 fs. The induced absorption band that represents the trapped holes is modulated by an oscillation of 63 cm–1, which is assigned to the coupling of holes to a phonon mode. We find electrons to undergo a relaxation with a time constant of 40 ps, followed by deeper trapping on the 2.5 ns time scale. On time scales longer than 10 ns, trap-limited recombination that follows a power law is found, spanning time scales up to microseconds. Finally, we observe no spectral or kinetic differences by applying a bias voltage to the PEC cell, indicating that the effect of a voltage and the charge transfer processes between BiVO4 and the electrolyte occurs on longer time scales. Our results therefore provide new insights into the carrier dynamics of BiVO4 and further expand the application window of TAS as an analytical tool for photoanode materials.



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