Influence of ethylene glycol on efficient photoelectrochemical activity of BiVO₄ photoanode via AACVD

Abstract

Thin-film bismuth vanadate, BiVO 4 photoanode was fabricated on fluorine-doped tin oxide via aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition, AACVD, with ethylene glycol as a solvent. The structure and morphology of the BiVO 4 thin film were analyzed using X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy and found to have monoclinic clinobisvanite structure with a noncompact nanoparticle distribution. The optical properties and bandgap estimation showed the BiVO 4 thin film exhibited a characteristic peak in the visiblelight region with bandgap energy of 2.43 eV. The photoelectrochemical properties were investigated in a 0.5 M Na 2 SO 4 electrolyte without any sacrificial agent or electron/ hole scavenger resulting in 0.73 mA cm À2 at 1.23 V vs. SCE.The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy revealed good charge-transfer characteristics of the photoanode and the Mott-Schottky plot was used to estimate the conduction and valence-band position of BiVO 4 .

Efficient Photoelectrochemical Performance of γ Irradiated g-C3N4 and Its g-C3N4@BiVO4 Heterojunction for Solar Water Splitting

“…In case of XRD analysis (Fig. 1c) The monoclinic clinobisvanite is more prevalent under normal condition and highly photocatalytically active as well [25][26][27]43 . Due to nearly amorphous structure of g-C 3 N 4 , the peak from g-C 3 N 4 is not clearly visible for gamma radiation in g-C 3 N 4 @BiVO 4 ( Fig.…”

Effect of Film Thickness on Photoelectrochemical Performance of SnO2 Prepared via AACVD

“…Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is one of the most promising approaches to store clean and abundant solar energy in form of hydrogen. This technology utilizes semiconducting materials such as BiVO 4 , Fe 2 O 3 , and WO 3 as photoanode to initiate the PEC process. The performance of semiconductor in this system depends strongly on the intrinsic properties of photoanode material as well as morphological properties of the thin film including surface roughness, structure (nanoparticles, nanorods, nanosheets, and so on), and film thickness.…”

“…Such technique substantially reduces the cost of fabrication due to less power consumption and broadens the range of precursors for investigation as AACVD does not depend on the volatility of the precursors . On top of that, the morphological properties of thin film produced by AACVD including thickness, crystal structure, and roughness can be controlled by manipulating the deposition parameters such as deposition time, temperature, and precursor concentration …”

Spin‐Coated Bismuth Vanadate Thin Film as an Alternative Electron Transport Layer for Light‐Emitting Diode Application

“…These estimated values of lattice parameters are in good agreement with the reported values. [ 31 ] The average crystallite size of BVO thin films were estimated using the Scherrer equation, [ 22 ] and the estimated values are shown in Table 1 and Figure 2a. However, the average crystallite size was found to increase with an increase in a solution concentration of up to BVO5 film, indicating the decrease in grain boundary or increases in grain size.…”