Structural and Photoelectrochemical Properties of BiVO₄ Thin Films

Abstract

Monoclinic scheelite BiVO 4 thin films have been successfully prepared by a chemical solution approach of polymer-assisted deposition. The films are transparent yellow with granular morphology and show a strong absorption in the visible light region. The band gap of BiVO 4 films is estimated to be 2.54 eV. The photoresponse of the films on conducting oxide electrode substrates is observed, and the photocurrent increases with the higher energy absorption bands.

Doping properties of monoclinic BiVO4studied by first-principles density-functional theory

“…Therefore, searching for metal oxide semiconductors with appropriate bandgaps has been one of the research focuses in the field of PEC water splitting [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Among the large number of metal oxides proposed, BiVO 4 has shown very promising performance [9][10][11][12]. The monoclinic BiVO 4 has a direct bandgap of 2.4-2.5 eV, good optical absorption properties, and reasonable band edge alignment with respect to H/H 2 O and O/H 2 O redox potentials [12,13].…”

Nanosized BiVO4 with high visible-light-induced photocatalytic activity: Ultrasonic-assisted synthesis and protective effect of surfactant

“…Various methods have been used to synthesize BiVO 4 crystallites, such as aqueous process [10,[19][20][21][22], hydrothermal process [23][24][25], organic decomposition method [26], chemical bath deposition [27], solution combustion synthesis method [28], flame spray pyrolysis [29], and solid-state reaction (SSR) method [30]. Recently, our group has reported a sonochemical route to synthesize BiVO 4 photocatalyst with relative high photocatalytic activity [31].…”

Enhancement in Photoelectrochemical Efficiency by Fabrication ofBiVO4@MWCNT Nanocomposites

“…BiVO 4 shows not only excellent visible-light photocatalytic properties, but also a high photo-to-current conversion efficiency [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Almost a decade ago, the high activity of BiVO 4 for photocatalytic O 2 evolution from aqueous suspensions containing Ag + as a sacrificial electron acceptor under visible-light irradiation was observed [19].…”

“…Almost a decade ago, the high activity of BiVO 4 for photocatalytic O 2 evolution from aqueous suspensions containing Ag + as a sacrificial electron acceptor under visible-light irradiation was observed [19]. It was then discovered that nanocrystalline BiVO 4 thinfilm electrodes show high photocurrent yields for oxygen evolution in neutral aqueous electrolytes [25][26][27]. Therefore, BiVO 4 might be a good visible-light photovoltaic material.…”