Print Email Facebook Twitter Photocharged BiVO4 photoanodes for improved solar water splitting Title Photocharged BiVO4 photoanodes for improved solar water splitting Author Trze?niewski, B.J. Smith, W.A. Faculty Applied Sciences Department Chemical Engineering Date 2015-07-01 Abstract Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) is a promising semiconductor material for the production of solar fuels via photoelectrochemical water splitting, however, it suffers from substantial recombination losses that limit its performance to well below its theoretical maximum. Here we demonstrate for the first time that the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance of BiVO4 photoanodes can be dramatically improved by prolonged exposure to AM 1.5 illumination in the open circuit (OC) configuration. Photoanodes subjected to such light treatment achieve a record photocurrent for undoped and uncatalysed BiVO4 of 3.3 mA cm?2 at 1.23 VRHE. Moreover, photoelectrochemical tests with a sacrificial agent yield significantly enhanced catalytic efficiency over the whole operating potential range, suggesting elimination of major losses at the semiconductor–electrolyte interface. Finally, we demonstrate that this so-called ‘photocharging’ technique induces a considerable cathodic shift in the photocurrent onset potential and increases the photovoltage extracted from BiVO4 photoanodes. Subject Gold for GoldOpen Access To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6c37d4a2-112d-42bb-80e9-643dea16ed17 DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ta04716a Publisher RSC Publishing ISSN 2050-7496 Source J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, Advance Article Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights (c) 2015 RSC Files PDF c5ta04716a.pdf 779.34 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:6c37d4a2-112d-42bb-80e9-643dea16ed17/datastream/OBJ/view