Issue 18, 2022

Turning off the “shunt channel” by coating with CoFe layered double hydroxide nanocrystals for efficient photoelectrocatalytic water splitting

Abstract

Building a photoelectrochemical cell to drive water decomposition into hydrogen and oxygen is a feasible way to access clean energy, but the unideal charge transfer path between the cocatalyst and the substrate greatly limits its application. We have developed a facile route for the preparation of a very small and highly crystalline CoFe layered double hydroxide (LDH) cocatalyst on a BiVO4 electrode through a low temperature chemical bath process. Unlike the conventional successive amorphous CoFe LDH layer coatings achieved through the electrodeposition process, the tiny and crystalline CoFe nanoparticles can close the “shunt channel” between the cocatalyst and the substrate, and the recombination of photogenerated charge caused by back-reaction is inhibited. Also, the interface between crystalline CoFe nanoparticles and BiVO4 has fewer surface trapped states compared with that of amorphous CoFe LDH layers. The CoFe/BiVO4 photoanodes showed a desirable photocurrent of 4.3 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE, and the maximum applied bias photon-to-current efficiency (ABPE) for the crystalline CoFe/BiVO4 photoanode was calculated to be 1.2% at 1.01 V, consistent with 1.5 times enhancement over that of amorphous CoFe/BiVO4 and nearly 4 times enhancement over that of BiVO4.

Graphical abstract: Turning off the “shunt channel” by coating with CoFe layered double hydroxide nanocrystals for efficient photoelectrocatalytic water splitting

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
12 四月 2022
Accepted
09 七月 2022
First published
14 七月 2022

Inorg. Chem. Front., 2022,9, 4685-4694

Turning off the “shunt channel” by coating with CoFe layered double hydroxide nanocrystals for efficient photoelectrocatalytic water splitting

P. Wei, Y. Wen, K. Lin and X. Li, Inorg. Chem. Front., 2022, 9, 4685 DOI: 10.1039/D2QI00760F

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