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Modification with FeOOH magnificent enhanced the photoelectrochemical degradation activity of oxygen vacancy-containing BiVO4

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Abstract

Poor photoelectrochemical (PEC) degradation performance of BiVO4 photoelectrode is generally caused by poor photogenerated charge carriers separate, apparent recombination, and sluggish carrier transfer mobility. To address the aforementioned issues, we first devised a method that combines oxygen vacancy (Ov) and cocatalyst FeOOH for synergistically enhanced BiVO4 PEC degradation performance. With the addition of Ov produced by the convenient hydrothermal method, the improved current density value of 0.54 mA/cm2 was attained on the BiVO4-Ov sample, which is 1.38 times higher than pristine BiVO4 at the same voltage of 1.23 V vs. RHE. Specially, the as-prepared BiVO4-Ov/FeOOH demonstrates a fascinating current density of 1.18 mA/cm2 under light, and present the largest degradation activity of 85%, which is in line with expectations. In summary, our findings show that the Ov may be efficiently protected by covering a FeOOH ultrathin nanolayer, resulting in a photoelectrode with elevated current density and stability.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The data that support the findings of this study are not openly available due to unpublished this work anywhere and are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Tian** Science and Technology Planning Project (21YDTPJC00730), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52073200), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52106104).

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Tian** Science and Technology Planning Project, 21YDTPJC00730, Mengnan Ruan

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tian** Chengjian University, Tian**, 300384, China

    Mingyang Ma & Mengnan Ruan

  2. Tian** Key Laboratory of Building Green Functional Materials, Tian**, 300384, China

    Mengnan Ruan

  3. School of Energy and Safety Engineering, Tian** Chengjian University, Tian**, 300384, China

    Weixue Cao

  4. Sinopec Research Institute of Safety and Engineering Co., Ltd, Qingdao, 266000, China

    Ke Yang

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  1. Mingyang Ma
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MM carried out measurements and manuscript composition. MR raised external funding support. WC performed experimental design. KY conceptualized and supervised the work. All authors contributed to the data analyses and manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to Mengnan Ruan.

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Ma, M., Ruan, M., Cao, W. et al. Modification with FeOOH magnificent enhanced the photoelectrochemical degradation activity of oxygen vacancy-containing BiVO4. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 1648 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-10975-w

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