Abstract
As the performance of photoelectrodes used for solar water splitting continues to improve, enhancing the long-term stability of the photoelectrodes becomes an increasingly crucial issue. In this study, we report that tuning the composition of the electrolyte can be used as a strategy to suppress photocorrosion during solar water splitting. Anodic photocorrosion of BiVO4 photoanodes involves the loss of V5+ from the BiVO4 lattice by dissolution. We demonstrate that the use of a V5+-saturated electrolyte, which inhibits the photooxidation-coupled dissolution of BiVO4, can serve as a simple yet effective method to suppress anodic photocorrosion of BiVO4. The V5+ species in the solution can also incorporate into the FeOOH/NiOOH oxygen-evolution catalyst layer present on the BiVO4 surface during water oxidation, further enhancing water-oxidation kinetics. The effect of the V5+ species in the electrolyte on both the long-term photostability of BiVO4 and the performance of the FeOOH/NiOOH oxygen-evolution catalyst layer is systematically elucidated.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kudo, A., Omori, K. & Kato, H. A novel aqueous process for preparation of crystal form-controlled and highly crystalline BiVO4 powder from layered vanadates at room temperature and its photocatalytic and photophysical properties. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 121, 11459–11467 (1999).
Sayama, K. et al. Photoelectrochemical decomposition of water into H2 and O2 on porous BiVO4 thin-film electrodes under visible light and significant effect of Ag ion treatment. J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 11352–11360 (2006).
Park, Y., McDonald, K. J. & Choi, K.-S. Progress in bismuth vanadate photoanodes for use in solar water oxidation. Chem. Soc. Rev. 42, 2321–2337 (2013).
Sivula, K. & van de Krol, R. Semiconducting materials for photoelectrochemical energy conversion. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 15010 (2016).
Park, H. S. et al. Factors in the metal doping of BiVO4 for improved photoelectrocatalytic activity as studied by scanning electrochemical microscopy and first-principles density-functional calculation. J. Phys. Chem. C 115, 17870–17879 (2011).
Liang, Y., Tsubota, T., Mooij, L. P. A. & van de Krol, R. Highly improved quantum efficiencies for thin film BiVO4 photoanodes. J. Phys. Chem. C 115, 17594–17598 (2011).
Parmar, K. P. S. et al. Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water oxidation over metal-doped monoclinic BiVO4 photoanodes. ChemSusChem 5, 1926–1934 (2012).
Luo, W. et al. Solar hydrogen generation from seawater with a modified BiVO4 photoanode. Energy Environ. Sci. 4, 4046–4051 (2011).
Park, Y., Kang, D. & Choi, K.-S. Marked enhancement in electron-hole separation achieved in the low bias region using electrochemically prepared Mo-doped BiVO4 photoanodes. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 16, 1238–1246 (2014).
Seabold, J. A., Zhu, K. & Neale, N. R. Efficient solar photoelectrolysis by nanoporous Mo:BiVO4 through controlled electron transport. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 16, 1121–1131 (2014).
Jo, W. J. et al. Phosphate doping into monoclinic BiVO4 for enhanced photoelectrochemical water oxidation activity. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51, 3147–3151 (2012).
Wang, G. et al. Computational and photoelectrochemical study of hydrogenated bismuth vanadate. J. Phys. Chem. C 117, 10957–10964 (2013).
Kim, T. W., Ping, Y., Galli, G. A. & Choi, K.-S. Simultaneous enhancements in photon absorption and charge transport of bismuth vanadate photoanodes for solar water splitting. Nat. Commun. 6, 8769 (2015).
Kim, T. W. & Choi, K.-S. Nanoporous BiVO4 photoanodes with dual-layer oxygen evolution catalysts for solar water splitting. Science 343, 990–994 (2014).
Kuang, Y. et al. A front-illuminated nanostructured transparent BiVO4 photoanode for >2% efficient water splitting. Adv. Energy Mater. 6, 1501645 (2016).
Zhong, D. K., Choi, S. & Gamelin, D. R. Near-complete suppression of surface recombination in solar photoelectrolysis by “Co-Pi” catalyst-modified W:BiVO4. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133, 18370–18377 (2011).
Seabold, J. A. & Choi, K.-S. Efficient and stable photo-oxidation of water by a bismuth vanadate photoanode coupled with an iron oxyhydroxide oxygen evolution catalyst. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 2186–2192 (2012).
Lichterman, M. F. et al. Enhanced stability and activity for water oxidation in alkaline media with bismuth vanadate photoelectrodes modified with a cobalt oxide catalytic layer produced by atomic layer deposition. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 4, 4188–4191 (2013).
Abdi, F. F. et al. Efficient solar water splitting by enhanced charge separation in a bismuth vanadate–silicon tandem photoelectrode. Nat. Commun. 4, 2195 (2013).
Chen, Y.-S., Manser, J. S. & Kamat, P. V. All solution-processed lead halide perovskite-BiVO4 tandem assembly for photolytic solar fuels production. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 137, 974–981 (2015).
Pihosh, Y. et al. Photocatalytic generation of hydrogen by core-shell WO3/BiVO4 nanorods with ultimate water splitting efficiency. Sci. Rep. 5, 11141 (2015).
Kim, J. H. et al. Hetero-type dual photoanodes for unbiased solar water splitting with extended light harvesting. Nat. Commun. 7, 13380 (2016).
Kuang, Y. et al. Ultrastable low-bias water splitting photoanodes via photocorrosion inhibition and in situ catalyst regeneration. Nat. Energy 2, 16191 (2016).
Bae, D. et al. Strategies for stable water splitting via protected photoelectrodes. Chem. Soc. Rev. 46, 1933–1954 (2017).
Kohl, P. A., Frank, S. N. & Bard, A. J. Semiconductor electrodes: XI. Behavior of n-and p-type single crystal semiconductors covered with thin films. J. Electrochem. Soc. 124, 225–229 (1977).
Paracchino, A. et al. Highly active oxide photocathode for photoelectrochemical water reduction. Nat. Mater. 10, 456–461 (2011).
Gissler, W., McEvoy, A. J. & Graetzel, M. The effect of sputtered RuO2 overlayers on the photoelectrochemical behavior of CdS electrodes. J. Electrochem. Soc. 129, 1733–1736 (1982).
Govindaraju, G. V., Wheeler, G. P., Lee, D. & Choi, K.-S. Methods for electrochemical synthesis and photoelectrochemical characterization for photoelectrodes. Chem. Mater. 29, 355–370 (2017).
Toma, F. M. et al. Mechanistic insights into chemical and photochemical transformations of bismuth vanadate photoanodes. Nat. Commun. 7, 12012 (2016).
Pourbaix, M. Atlas of Electrochemical Equilibria in Aqueous Solutions (National Association of Corrosion Engineers, Houston, 1974).
Kanan, M. W., Surendranath, Y. & Nocera, D. G. Cobalt-phosphate oxygen-evolving compound. Chem. Soc. Rev. 38, 109–114 (2009).
Fan, K. et al. Nickel–vanadium monolayer double hydroxide for efficient electrochemical water oxidation. Nat. Commun. 7, 11981 (2016).
Man, I. C. et al. Universality in oxygen evolution electrocatalysis on oxide surfaces. ChemCatChem 3, 1159–1165 (2011).
Diaz-Morales, O., Ledezma-Yanez, I., Koper, M. T. M. & Calle-Vallejo, F. Guidelines for the rational design of Ni-based double hydroxide electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction. ACS Catal. 5, 5380–5387 (2015).
McDonald, K. J. & Choi, K.-S. A new electrochemical synthesis route for a BiOI electrode and its conversion to a highly efficient porous BiVO4 photoanode for solar water oxidation. Energy Environ. Sci. 5, 8553–8557 (2012).
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the NSF Center CHE-1305124. The authors thank D.-H. Nam for his valuable suggestions and discussion for the study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
K.-S.C. and D.K.L. planned the experiments, interpreted the experimental results and wrote the manuscript. D.K.L. performed all experiments and K.-S.C. supervised the project.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Figures 1–10 and Supplementary Tables 1–3
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, D.K., Choi, KS. Enhancing long-term photostability of BiVO4 photoanodes for solar water splitting by tuning electrolyte composition. Nat Energy 3, 53–60 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-017-0057-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-017-0057-0
This article is cited by
-
All-perovskite-based unassisted photoelectrochemical water splitting system for efficient, stable and scalable solar hydrogen production
Nature Energy (2024)
-
Long-term durability of metastable β-Fe2O3 photoanodes in highly corrosive seawater
Nature Communications (2023)
-
Role of g-C3N4 in Fabrication of BiVO4/WO3 Z-scheme Heterojunction for high Photoelectrochemical Performances with Enhanced Light Harvesting
International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing-Green Technology (2023)
-
Modification of BiVO4 nanoporous films with FeOOH for photoelectrochemical water oxidation and determination of glutathione
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics (2023)
-
Recent Advances in Metal–Organic Frameworks Based on Electrospinning for Energy Storage
Advanced Fiber Materials (2023)