Photocurrent improvement from magnetron DC sputtered and thermally treated ruthenium-based catalyst decoration onto BiVO4 photoanodes

NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH SECTION B-BEAM INTERACTIONS WITH MATERIALS AND ATOMS

卷:494-495

Article

Gutierres, L., I¹  Migowski, P.²  Alencar, I^1,3  Thomaz, R. S.¹  Feil, Adriano F.¹ 

[1] Pontifical Univ Rio Grande do Sul, Sch Technol, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

[2] Univ Fed Rio Grande do Sul, Inst Chem, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

[3] Univ Fed Santa Catarina, Dept Phys, Florianopolis, SC, Brazil

关键词: Photoanode;    Monoclinic bismuth vanadate;    Water Splitting;    Surface decoration;    Ruthenium;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.nimb.2021.03.002

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Monoclinic BiVO4 (BVO) properties favor its use as the main absorber in photoanodes applied for photoelectrochemical water splitting. However, hindrances as the high rate of recombination of the electrons and holes photogenerated and as the poor charge carrier transport limit its direct, practical use. Doping, building a heterojunction with other semiconductors and decorating the surface with catalysts like cobalt phosphate and ruthenium oxide are among the many existing approaches to improve BVO performance. The deposition of catalyst or cocatalyst normally involve the use of potentially hazardous techniques as chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In this work, we present a simple route for enhancing photoelectrochemical results in BVO samples. The decoration with metallic ruthenium is performed via magnetron sputtering DC, a reliable, inexpensive and safeto-use physical deposition technique, followed by a thermal treatment in air within a muffle furnace for 6 h at 400 ?C. A gain of about 45% in the photocurrent at 1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and in the overall spectrum area in comparison with pristine BVO samples was registered by cyclic voltammetry measurements in a 0.5 M phosphate buffer solution under full spectrum illumination from a 100 W Xenon lamp. The morphological and chemical modifications that resulted in such photocurrent rise were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and X-ray Photogenerated Spectroscopy (XPS).

【 授权许可】

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