Issue 40, 2017

Earth-abundant elements doping for robust and stable solar-driven water splitting by FeOOH

Abstract

The water oxidation reaction (OER) is the key process used for the generation of H2, and new catalyst systems are needed to achieve considerable efficiency in the OER. In the present work, β-FeOOH samples, both bare and doped with earth-abundant elements (Ni and Co), were synthesized and confirmed to be promising semiconductors for solar-driven water oxidation. This is the first time that the direct use of β-FeOOH samples has been reported in a water splitting system, in which β-FeOOH has always been used as a co-catalyst. From a combination of DFT calculations and experimental results, (a) β-FeOOH can play two roles, namely, carrier generation and improving the kinetics of water oxidation, owing to the abundance of surface OH groups; (b) doping with Ni or Co can improve the photocatalytic activity of β-FeOOH, and this enhancement benefits from the separation of photogenerated carriers; (c) samples doped with Ni or Co give better performance in electrocatalytic water oxidation than bare β-FeOOH. After being doped with these earth-abundant elements, β-FeOOH delivered saturated photocurrent densities of 4.71 (for Co) and 2.55 (for Ni) mA cm−2, which are higher than the value of 0.69 mA cm−2 recorded for bare β-FeOOH at a low external bias of 1.0 V versus RHE.

Graphical abstract: Earth-abundant elements doping for robust and stable solar-driven water splitting by FeOOH

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Aug 2017
Accepted
17 Sep 2017
First published
18 Sep 2017

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017,5, 21478-21485

Earth-abundant elements doping for robust and stable solar-driven water splitting by FeOOH

J. Yan, P. Li, Y. Ji, H. Bian, Y. Li and S. (. Liu, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017, 5, 21478 DOI: 10.1039/C7TA07208B

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