Rolling dopant and strain in Y-doped BiFeO3 epitaxial thin films for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Abstract

We report significant photoelectrochemical activity of Y-doped BiFeO3 (Y-BFO) epitaxial thin films deposited on Nb:SrTiO3 substrates. The Y-BFO photoanodes exhibit a strong dependence of the photocurrent values on the thickness of the films, and implicitly on the induced epitaxial strain. The peculiar crystalline structure of the Y-BFO thin films and the structural changes after the PEC experiments have been revealed by high resolution X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy investigations. The crystalline coherence breaking due to the small ionic radius Y-addition was analyzed using Willliamson-Hall approach on the 2θ-ω scans of the symmetric (00 l) reflections and confirmed by high resolution TEM (HR-TEM) analysis. In the thinnest sample the lateral coherence length (L∥) is preserved on larger nanoregions/nanodomains. For higher thickness values L∥ is decreasing while domains tilt angles (αtilt) is increasing. The photocurrent value obtained for the thinnest sample was as high as Jph = 0.72 mA/cm2, at 1.4 V(vs. RHE). The potentiostatic scans of the Y-BFO photoanodes show the stability of photoresponse, irrespective of the film’s thickness. There is no clear cathodic photocurrent observation for the Y-BFO thin films confirming the n-type semiconductor behavior of the Y-BFO photoelectrodes.

Combined nanopore and single-molecule real-time sequencing survey of human betaherpesvirus 5 transcriptome

“…LRS platforms are currently commercially available by Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), which provide read lengths of ∼15 kb for PacBio and > 30 kb for ONT that surpass lengths of most transcripts. Both techniques were applied for the investigation of transcriptomic complexity of human cell lines 7 and various organisms, such as mammals 8 , fish 9 and plants 10 and a number of viruses, such as poxviruses 11 , baculoviruses 12 , coronaviruses 13 , circoviruses 14 , adenoviruses 15 ; and herpesviruses 16 – 19 .…”

Preparation and photoelectrochemical properties of BiFeO3/BiOI composites

“…Recently, perovskite BiFeO 3 (BFO) has received great attention due to its narrow band gap (2.1-2.7 eV), good chemical stability and low cost. [1][2][3] As a typical representative of ferroelectric materials, the internal electric eld induced by self-polarization can facilitate the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes, since the special electric eld modulates the chemical potential and surface band bending, which play a crucial role in improving the photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties. [4][5][6] However, the PEC activities of BFO are still unsatisfactory because of its poor charge transport properties and electronhole recombination.…”

Complex Catalytic Materials Based on the Perovskite-Type Structure for Energy and Environmental Applications

“…0.81 V vs. RHE [208]. A detailed study on Y-doped BFO used as photoanode with high PEC efficiency for water splitting reaction (J ph = 0.8 mA/cm 2 at 1.4 V vs. RHE) was recently reported in literature [209]. Moreover, complex BFO-heterostructures were used as photoelectrodes for water splitting reaction.…”