Study of Solar Energy Conversion Strategies based on Bismuth Vanadate

Sixto Gimenez^a, Marta Haro^a, Isaac Herraiz-Cardona^a, Juan Bisquert^a^,^b, Abdullah M. Al-Mayouf^b, Maged N. Shaddad^b, Saeid Safshekan^b

^aKing Saud University, Department of Chemistry, King Saud University, Riyadh 11564, Arabia Saudita, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

^bElectroanalytical Chemistry Research Laboratory, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar

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

Poster, Sixto Gimenez, 089
Publication date: 14th June 2016

Bismuth Vanadate has emerged as one of the most interesting n-type semiconductor materials to oxidize water as a photoanode in a photoelectrochemical cell. The record obtained solar to hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency is the highest reported to date (6.2 %) among the family of metal oxides. Herein, we report a very soft electrolytic synthesis deposition method, which allows remarkably enhancing the 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 α-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 easily to apply to different semiconductor materials, fully reproducible, and facile to scale-up on large area conductive substrates with attractive implications for technological deployment. We also show that combined with lead oxide, Bismuth Vanadate provides a synergistic photocapacitive platform with an specific capacitance of 6 mF cm-2 (4.5 mF cm-2 at discharge current density of 0.015 mA cm-2), high open circuit potential (1.5 V vs RHE) and stable charge/discharge cycling along 100 cycles, opening promising research avenues in the development of novel solar energy storage strategies.

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