A Simple Method for Preparation and Optimisation of Mo-Modified BiVO4 Photoabsorbers and the Influence of Oxygen Evolution Catalyst Addition on the PEC Performance

João Ricardo Coelho Junqueira^a, Tim Bobrowski^a, Olga Anna Krysiak^a^,^b, Ramona Gutkowski^a, Wolfgang Schuhmann^a

^aRuhr-Universität Bochum, Analytical Chemistry, Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES), Universitätsstraße, 150, Bochum, Germany

^bUniversity of Warsaw, College of Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences, S. Banacha 2c, 02-097, Warsaw, Poland

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting 2018 (NFM18)

S2 Light Driven Water Splitting

Torremolinos, Spain, 2018 October 22nd - 26th

Organizers: Wolfram Jaegermann and Bernhard Kaiser

Poster, João Ricardo Coelho Junqueira, 101
Publication date: 6th July 2018

Photoelectrochemical cells are one of key technologies to mitigate the usage of fossil fuels for the energy production and producing green energy aiming on the reduction of the current CO₂ emission.¹ During the last decade, bismuth vanadates (BiVO₄) have been intensively studied as possible candidate for photoanode materials integrated into a photoelectrochemical (PEC) device. BiVO₄ meets the crucial criteria, such as a band gap of around 2.4 eV with band edge positions which provide sufficient overpotential for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and it is produced of inexpensive and non-toxic precursors. The main disadvantage of BiVO₄ is the slow electron transport through the bulk material which is increasing the probability for charge carrier recombination.² This drawback can be overcome by controlling the sample layer thickness and the addition of e.g. molybdenum as dopant.³

Here, a simple method for preparation and optimisation of Mo-modified BiVO₄ photoabsorbers by means of an automated airbrush spray-coating apparatus is proposed. The layer thickness of Mo-modified bismuth vanadate (Mo:BiVO₄) samples and the content of Mo can be tuned aiming on optimised incident photo-to-current efficiency (IPCE) values. In a second step, the optimised Mo:BiVO₄samples were further decorated with OER catalysts – e.g. cobalt phosphate, layered double hydroxides and a mixture of NiFeCr oxides – aiming on improved photocurrents and IPCE values. Moreover, the photocurrent of a gradient of Ni/Fe LDH decorated Mo:BiVO₄ sample was characterised by means of an optical scanning droplet cell in order to determine an optimised loading of the OER catalyst.

References

1) R. K. Pachauri and L. Meyer, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva, Switzerland, 2015.

2) C. Martinez Suarez, S. Hernández and N. Russo, Appl. Catal. A: Gen., 2015, 504, 158–170.

3) R. Gutkowski, C. Khare, F. Conzuelo, Y. Kayran, A. Ludwig and W. Schuhmann, Energy Environ. Sci., 2017, 10, 1213–1221.

Acknowledgement: The authors are grateful to the financial support of the DFG within the framework of the SPP1613 (SCHU929/12-1 and 12-2).

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