2D VA group materials as interlayers on photoanodes boosting solar water splitting by improving interfacial charge injection

Junyi Cui^a, Salvador Eslava^a, Matyas Daboczi^a, Yi-Chun Chin^b, Katia Pagano^b, Jifang Zhang^c, Mark A. Isaacs^d, Gwilherm Kerherve^e, Sixto Gimenez^f, Ji-Seon Kim^b

^aDepartment of Chemical Engineering Imperial College London, South Kensington, Londres SW7 2AZ, Reino Unido, United Kingdom

^bDepartment of Physics Imperial College London, South Kensington, Londres SW7 2AZ, Reino Unido, United Kingdom

^cSchool of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Pudong, China, 201210, China

^dDepartment of Chemistry University College London, Gordon Street, London, United Kingdom

^eDepartment of Materials Imperial College London, South Kensington, Londres SW7 2AZ, Reino Unido, United Kingdom

^fInstitute of Advanced Materials INAM, Avinguda de Vicent Sos Baynat, Castelló de la Plana, Spain

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MAT-SUS) (NFM22)

#NANOMAT - Advances on the Understanding and Synthesis of Nanomaterials for Photocatalysis and Optoelectronics

Barcelona, Spain, 2022 October 24th - 28th

Organizers: Ludmilla Steier and Daniel Congreve

Contributed talk, Junyi Cui, presentation 134
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2022.134
Publication date: 11th July 2022

Two-dimensional (2D) VA group materials, including black phosphorene, bismuthene, and antimonene, attract considerable attention in energy devices because of their unique properties, such as tunable bandgap and superhigh carrier mobility. However, their application in photoelectrochemical devices is rarely reported. In this presentation, we present the successful design of semiconductor /2D VA material/ co-catalyst composite photoanodes, such as BiVO₄/bismuthene/NiFeOOH, BiVO₄/bismuthene/CoPi, and BiVO₄/Sb/NiFeOOH. Specifically, the BiVO₄/bismuthene/NiFeOOH photoanode that achieves 3.7 mA cm^-2 at 0.8 V_RHE are deeply investigated. Comprehensive (photo)electrochemical techniques and surface photovoltage were comprehensively employed to identify the roles of bismuthene and NiFeOOH on BiVO₄. We found that bismuthene increases the density of V_O of BiVO₄ that are beneficial for the oxygen evolution reaction via the formation of oxy/hydroxyl-based water oxidation intermediates. Moreover, bismuthene increases interfacial band bending and fills the V_O-related electron traps with charges, leading to more efficient charge extraction. The NiFeOOH significantly increase the surface hole concentration by passivating the r-ss. The use of 2D VA group materials and co-catalysts as functional layers opens new avenues to tune the surface properties of photoanodes for water oxidation.

Acknowledgements:

S.E. and M.D. thank the EPSRC grant EP/S030727/1 for financial support. S.G. acknowledges the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) from Spain (PID2020-116093RB-C41) and University Jaume I (UJI-B2019-20) for financial support.

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