Issue 17, 2019

Highly conformal deposition of ultrathin cobalt acetate on a bismuth vanadate nanostructure for solar water splitting

Abstract

In this work, the effect of photochemically modifying nanoporous bismuth vanadate in Co2+ solution in acetate buffer (abbreviated as Co–Ac) on water oxidation was thoroughly studied. Modification of photoanode surfaces with the electrocatalyst Co–Ac has yielded a ∼450 mV cathodic shift in the onset potential and more than threefold higher photocurrent density at 1.23 V than that of pristine BiVO4. Structural and mechanistic studies indicate that Co–Ac effectively acts as a true catalyst on BiVO4 in that Co–Ac can boost the photoelectrochemical properties of the BiVO4 underlayer by mediating hole extraction across the photoexcited semiconductor–electrolyte interface. With Co–Ac as the catalyst, water oxidation becomes much more facile by overcoming the unproductive surface electron–hole recombination. This work considers the potential application of this simple surface modification approach for other candidate photoanodes.

Graphical abstract: Highly conformal deposition of ultrathin cobalt acetate on a bismuth vanadate nanostructure for solar water splitting

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 4 2019
Accepted
01 8 2019
First published
01 8 2019

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2019,9, 4588-4597

Highly conformal deposition of ultrathin cobalt acetate on a bismuth vanadate nanostructure for solar water splitting

T. Vo, H. Liu and C. Chiang, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2019, 9, 4588 DOI: 10.1039/C9CY00816K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements