TY - JOUR
T1 - Annealing temperature effects on photoelectrochemical performance of bismuth vanadate thin film photoelectrodes
AU - Shi, Le
AU - Zhuo, Sifei
AU - Abulikemu, Mutalifu
AU - Mettela, Gangaiah
AU - Palaniselvam, Thangavelu
AU - Rasul, Shahid
AU - Tang, Bo
AU - Yan, Buyi
AU - Saleh, Navid B.
AU - Wang, Peng
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-02-19
Acknowledgements: This project is based upon work supported by the King Abdullah University Science and Technology (KAUST) CCF fund, awarded to Water Desalination and Reuse Center (WDRC). The authors are grateful to other members of the KAUST Environmental Nanotechnology group for their insightful discussions.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - The effects of annealing treatment between 400 °C and 540 °C on crystallization behavior, grain size, electrochemical (EC) and photoelectrochemical (PEC) oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performances of bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) thin films are investigated in this work. The results show that higher temperature leads to larger grain size, improved crystallinity, and better crystal orientation for the BiVO4 thin film electrodes. Under air-mass 1.5 global (AM 1.5) solar light illumination, the BiVO4 thin film prepared at a higher annealing temperature (500–540 °C) shows better PEC OER performance. Also, the OER photocurrent density increased from 0.25 mA cm−2 to 1.27 mA cm−2 and that of the oxidation of sulfite, a hole scavenger, increased from 1.39 to 2.53 mA cm−2 for the samples prepared from 400 °C to 540 °C. Open-circuit photovoltage decay (OCPVD) measurement indicates that BiVO4 samples prepared at the higher annealing temperature have less charge recombination and longer electron lifetime. However, the BiVO4 samples prepared at lower annealing temperature have better EC performance in the absence of light illumination and more electrochemically active surface sites, which are negatively related to electrochemical double-layer capacitance (Cdl). Cdl was 0.0074 mF cm−2 at 400 °C and it decreased to 0.0006 mF cm−2 at 540 °C. The OER and sulfide oxidation are carefully compared and these show that the efficiency of charge transport in the bulk (ηbulk) and on the surface (ηsurface) of the BiVO4 thin film electrode are improved with the increase in the annealing temperature. The mechanism behind the light-condition-dependent role of the annealing treatment is also discussed.
AB - The effects of annealing treatment between 400 °C and 540 °C on crystallization behavior, grain size, electrochemical (EC) and photoelectrochemical (PEC) oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performances of bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) thin films are investigated in this work. The results show that higher temperature leads to larger grain size, improved crystallinity, and better crystal orientation for the BiVO4 thin film electrodes. Under air-mass 1.5 global (AM 1.5) solar light illumination, the BiVO4 thin film prepared at a higher annealing temperature (500–540 °C) shows better PEC OER performance. Also, the OER photocurrent density increased from 0.25 mA cm−2 to 1.27 mA cm−2 and that of the oxidation of sulfite, a hole scavenger, increased from 1.39 to 2.53 mA cm−2 for the samples prepared from 400 °C to 540 °C. Open-circuit photovoltage decay (OCPVD) measurement indicates that BiVO4 samples prepared at the higher annealing temperature have less charge recombination and longer electron lifetime. However, the BiVO4 samples prepared at lower annealing temperature have better EC performance in the absence of light illumination and more electrochemically active surface sites, which are negatively related to electrochemical double-layer capacitance (Cdl). Cdl was 0.0074 mF cm−2 at 400 °C and it decreased to 0.0006 mF cm−2 at 540 °C. The OER and sulfide oxidation are carefully compared and these show that the efficiency of charge transport in the bulk (ηbulk) and on the surface (ηsurface) of the BiVO4 thin film electrode are improved with the increase in the annealing temperature. The mechanism behind the light-condition-dependent role of the annealing treatment is also discussed.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/628484
UR - http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2018/ra/c8ra04887h
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052118923&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1039/c8ra04887h
DO - 10.1039/c8ra04887h
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85052118923
VL - 8
SP - 29179
EP - 29188
JO - RSC Advances
JF - RSC Advances
SN - 2046-2069
IS - 51
ER -