High photoinduced charge recombination
process and indolent water
oxidation kinetics are major drawbacks of the bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) photoanode in photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) water splitting.
To address these issues, a bismuth vanadate/copper oxide (BiVO4/CuO) p–n junction electrode was fabricated via the
electrodeposition method, and its PEC performance was studied using
0.1 M potassium phosphate (KPi) as an electrolyte under AM 1.5G (100
mW cm–2) irradiation. At an optimized condition,
the BiVO4/CuO p–n junction electrode showed improvement
in the current density of 2.05 mA cm–2 at +1.23
VRHE, which was ∼2-fold higher than the BiVO4 electrode (0.99 mA cm–2). The applied bias
photon-to-current efficiency (ABPE) of the BiVO4/CuO electrode
was also ∼2.5-fold higher than the BiVO4 electrode.
Loading of CuO over the BiVO4 surface improved the light
absorption ability of the electrode in the entire UV–vis region,
leading to generation of a greater number of photoinduced charge carriers,
and it also enhanced the reactive sites for water oxidation as per
the calculation of double-layer capacitance (C
dl). The formation of inner electric field (IEF) at the interface
between BiVO4 and CuO offered well-separated electron–hole
pairs in association with improvement in the lifetime of charge carriers,
and as a consequence, the BiVO4/CuO electrode showed a
transient decay time of 4.45 s, which was ∼1.6-fold higher
than the BiVO4 electrode (2.81 s). The formation of p–n
junction between BiVO4 and CuO significantly reduced the
charge transfer resistance (R
ct) at the
electrode/electrolyte interface (EEI), and as a result, the BiVO4 and BiVO4/CuO electrodes show R
ct values of 454.4 and 201.9 Ω, respectively, under
light illumination. Moreover, the Bode phase analysis confirmed quick
hole consumption in the presence of the BiVO4/CuO electrode
over the pristine BiVO4 electrode during water oxidation
process. Overall, the formation of a p–n junction facilitated
well-separated electron–hole pairs and improved the hole transfer
at the EEI for an efficient PEC water oxidation process.