Unconventional Relation between Charge Transport and Photocurrent via Boosting Small Polaron Hopping for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Zhang, Wenrui; Wu, Feng; Li, Jun; Yan, Danhua; Tao, Jing; Ping, Yuan; Liu, Mingzhao

doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.8b01445

Unconventional Relation between Charge Transport and Photocurrent via Boosting Small Polaron Hopping for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Journal Article · Mon Aug 27 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · ACS Energy Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.8b01445· OSTI ID:1477962

^[1]; Wu, Feng ^[2]; Li, Jun ^[3]; ^[1]; Tao, Jing ^[3]; ^[2]; ^[1]

Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)
Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Dept.

Doping in semiconductor photoelectrodes controls defect formation and carrier transport that critically determine the device performance. Here we report an unconventional carrier transport relation that is tuned by extrinsic molybdenum (Mo) doping in BiVO₄ photoanodes. Using the single-crystalline thin film approach, we identify that Mo doping significantly condenses the optimization regime between carrier transport and photon collection. For Mo-doped BiVO₄ films, an unprecedentedly thin layer (50 nm), less than one-third of the pristine BiVO₄ thickness, delivers larger photocurrents by overcoming the charge transport limitation, representing a regime not covered in conventional models. We provide direct evidence that Mo doping improves electron transport by boosting not only the donor density but also the electron mobility in the form of a small polaron, with the latter applying substantial impact on the photoelectrochemical performance. Density functional theory calculations reveal that fully ionized Mo dopants establish a strong electrostatic interaction with a small polaron, which helps reduce its hopping barrier by minimizing the local lattice expansion. Here, our results deliver mechanistic insights on the interplay between extrinsic doping and carrier transport, and provide guidance in developing advanced semiconductor photoelectrodes.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1477962

Report Number(s):: BNL--209194-2018-JAAM

Journal Information:: ACS Energy Letters, Journal Name: ACS Energy Letters Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 3; ISSN 2380-8195

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (32)

Ultrathin Lutetium Oxide Film as an Epitaxial Hole-Blocking Layer for Crystalline Bismuth Vanadate Water Splitting Photoanodes Zhang, Wenrui; Yan, Danhua; Tong, Xiao Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201705512	journal	January 2018
Mo-Doped BiVO ₄ Photoanodes Synthesized by Reactive Sputtering Chen, Le; Toma, Francesca M.; Cooper, Jason K. ChemSusChem, Vol. 8, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201402984	journal	February 2015
Principles of photoelectrochemical, solar energy conversion Butler, M. A.; Ginley, D. S. Journal of Materials Science, Vol. 15, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00552421	journal	January 1980
Crystal growth and structure of BiVO4 Sleight, A. W.; Chen, H. -y.; Ferretti, A. Materials Research Bulletin, Vol. 14, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1016/0025-5408(72)90227-9	journal	December 1979
Mo-doped BiVO4 nanotextured pillars as efficient photoanodes for solar water splitting Kim, Min-Woo; Kim, Karam; Ohm, Tae Yoon Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Vol. 726 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.07.260	journal	December 2017
Phase content and particle morphology of Bi–Mo–V–O powders produced by aerosol pyrolysis Guo, Wenping; Ward, Timothy L.; Porter, Charles Materials Research Bulletin, Vol. 40, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.materresbull.2005.03.033	journal	August 2005
Anomalous Conductivity Tailored by Domain-Boundary Transport in Crystalline Bismuth Vanadate Photoanodes Zhang, Wenrui; Yan, Danhua; Li, Jun Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b05093	journal	February 2018
Vanadium K-Edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy as a Probe of the Heterogeneous Lithiation of V ₂ O ₅ : First-Principles Modeling and Principal Component Analysis Horrocks, Gregory A.; Braham, Erick J.; Liang, Yufeng The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 120, Issue 42 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b06499	journal	October 2016
Unravelling Small-Polaron Transport in Metal Oxide Photoelectrodes Rettie, Alexander J. E.; Chemelewski, William D.; Emin, David The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Vol. 7, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b02143	journal	January 2016
Determination of vanadium-oxygen bond distances and bond orders by Raman spectroscopy Hardcastle, Franklin D.; Wachs, Israel E. The Journal of Physical Chemistry, Vol. 95, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1021/j100166a025	journal	June 1991
Screening of Electrocatalysts for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation on W-Doped BiVO ₄ Photocatalysts by Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy Ye, Heechang; Park, Hyun S.; Bard, Allen J. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 115, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1021/jp200852c	journal	June 2011
Efficient solar water splitting by enhanced charge separation in a bismuth vanadate-silicon tandem photoelectrode Abdi, Fatwa F.; Han, Lihao; Smets, Arno H. M. Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3195	journal	July 2013
Simultaneous enhancements in photon absorption and charge transport of bismuth vanadate photoanodes for solar water splitting Kim, Tae Woo; Ping, Yuan; Galli, Giulia A. Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9769	journal	October 2015
Colloidal quantum dot solids for solution-processed solar cells Yuan, Mingjian; Liu, Mengxia; Sargent, Edward H. Nature Energy, Vol. 1, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.16	journal	February 2016
Single dopants in semiconductors Koenraad, Paul M.; Flatté, Michael E. Nature Materials, Vol. 10, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2940	journal	January 2011
Energy conversion approaches and materials for high-efficiency photovoltaics Green, Martin A.; Bremner, Stephen P. Nature Materials, Vol. 16, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4676	journal	December 2016
Electric-field control of spin–orbit torque in a magnetically doped topological insulator Fan, Yabin; Kou, Xufeng; Upadhyaya, Pramey Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 11, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2015.294	journal	January 2016
Progress in bismuth vanadate photoanodes for use in solar water oxidation Park, Yiseul; McDonald, Kenneth J.; Choi, Kyoung-Shin Chem. Soc. Rev., Vol. 42, Issue 6, p. 2321-2337 https://doi.org/10.1039/C2CS35260E	journal	January 2013
Efficient solar photoelectrolysis by nanoporous Mo:BiVO ₄ through controlled electron transport Seabold, Jason A.; Zhu, Kai; Neale, Nathan R. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., Vol. 16, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1039/C3CP54356K	journal	January 2014
Recent advances in semiconductors for photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting Hisatomi, Takashi; Kubota, Jun; Domen, Kazunari Chem. Soc. Rev., Vol. 43, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1039/C3CS60378D	journal	January 2014
Effects of molybdenum substitution on the photocatalytic behavior of BiVO4 Yao, Weifeng; Iwai, Hideo; Ye, Jinhua Dalton Transactions, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1039/b713338c	journal	January 2008
Solar hydrogen generation from seawater with a modified BiVO4 photoanode Luo, Wenjun; Yang, Zaisan; Li, Zhaosheng Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 4, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1039/c1ee01812d	journal	January 2011
Cobalt-phosphate (Co-Pi) catalyst modified Mo-doped BiVO4 photoelectrodes for solar water oxidation Pilli, Satyananda Kishore; Furtak, Thomas E.; Brown, Logan D. Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 4, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1039/c1ee02444b	journal	January 2011
The current‐voltage characteristics of semiconductor‐electrolyte junction photovoltaic cells Reichman, J. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 36, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.91551	journal	April 1980
Polarons in crystalline and non-crystalline materials Austin, I. G.; Mott, N. F. Advances in Physics, Vol. 18, Issue 71, p. 41-102 https://doi.org/10.1080/00018736900101267	journal	January 1969
Effect of defects on the small polaron formation and transport properties of hematite from first-principles calculations Smart, Tyler J.; Ping, Yuan Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 29, Issue 39 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/aa7e3d	journal	August 2017
Depletion-Layer Photoeffects in Semiconductors Gärtner, Wolfgang W. Physical Review, Vol. 116, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.116.84	journal	October 1959
Doping properties of monoclinic BiVO 4 studied by first-principles density-functional theory Yin, Wan-Jian; Wei, Su-Huai; Al-Jassim, Mowafak M. Physical Review B, Vol. 83, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.155102	journal	April 2011
XSEDE: Accelerating Scientific Discovery Towns, John; Cockerill, Timothy; Dahan, Maytal Computing in Science & Engineering, Vol. 16, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2014.80	journal	September 2014
Efficient Photochemical Water Splitting by a Chemically Modified n-TiO2 Khan, S. U. M. Science, Vol. 297, Issue 5590 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1075035	journal	September 2002
Thin-Film Transistor Fabricated in Single-Crystalline Transparent Oxide Semiconductor Nomura, K. Science, Vol. 300, Issue 5623 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1083212	journal	May 2003
Multifunctional, self-assembled oxide nanocomposite thin films and devices Zhang, Wenrui; Ramesh, Ramamoorthy; MacManus-Driscoll, Judith L. MRS Bulletin, Vol. 40, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs.2015.198	journal	September 2015

Cited By (12)

Effect of Doping and Excitation Wavelength on Charge Carrier Dynamics in Hematite by Time‐Resolved Microwave and Terahertz Photoconductivity Kay, Asaf; Fiegenbaum‐Raz, Mor; Müller, Sönke Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201901590	journal	May 2019
Elaborately Modified BiVO ₄ Photoanodes for Solar Water Splitting Kim, Jin Hyun; Lee, Jae Sung Advanced Materials, Vol. 31, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201806938	journal	December 2018
Freeing the Polarons to Facilitate Charge Transport in BiVO ₄ from Oxygen Vacancies with an Oxidative 2D Precursor Qiu, Weitao; Xiao, Shuang; Ke, Jingwen Angewandte Chemie, Vol. 131, Issue 52 https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.201912475	journal	November 2019
Freeing the Polarons to Facilitate Charge Transport in BiVO ₄ from Oxygen Vacancies with an Oxidative 2D Precursor Qiu, Weitao; Xiao, Shuang; Ke, Jingwen Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 58, Issue 52 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201912475	journal	December 2019
Stepping towards Solar Water Splitting: Recent Progress in Bismuth Vanadate Photoanodes Luan, Peng; Zhang, Jie ChemElectroChem, Vol. 6, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1002/celc.201900398	journal	May 2019
The impact of crystal defects towards oxide semiconductor photoanode for photoelectrochemical water splitting Liu, Qi-Tao; Liu, De-Yu; Li, Jian-Ming Frontiers of Physics, Vol. 14, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-019-0905-4	journal	October 2019
Recent Advances of Epitaxial BiVO4 Thin Film: Preparation and Physical and Photoelectrochemical Properties Zhang, Yanna; Li, Guoqiang Brazilian Journal of Physics, Vol. 50, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13538-019-00730-0	journal	January 2020
Progress on ternary oxide-based photoanodes for use in photoelectrochemical cells for solar water splitting Lee, Dong Ki; Lee, Dongho; Lumley, Margaret A. Chemical Society Reviews, Vol. 48, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1039/c8cs00761f	journal	January 2019
Combining Landau–Zener theory and kinetic Monte Carlo sampling for small polaron mobility of doped BiVO ₄ from first-principles Wu, Feng; Ping, Yuan Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 6, Issue 41 https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ta07437b	journal	January 2018
Charge carrier transport dynamics in W/Mo-doped BiVO ₄ : first principles-based mesoscale characterization Pasumarthi, Viswanath; Liu, Taifeng; Dupuis, Michel Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 7, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ta09899a	journal	January 2019
Transport properties of electron small polarons in a V ₂ O ₅ cathode of Li-ion batteries: a computational study Watthaisong, Panuwat; Jungthawan, Sirichok; Hirunsit, Pussana RSC Advances, Vol. 9, Issue 34 https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ra02923k	journal	January 2019
Optical absorption induced by small polaron formation in transition metal oxides: The case of Co 3 O 4 Smart, Tyler J.; Pham, Tuan Anh; Ping, Yuan Physical Review Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevmaterials.3.102401	journal	October 2019

Similar Records

The effect of Mo doping on the charge separation dynamics and photocurrent performance of BiVO ₄ photoanodes

Journal Article · Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2015 · Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. PCCP (Print) · OSTI ID:1346229

Temperature Effect on Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting: A Model Study Based on BiVO₄ Photoanodes

Journal Article · Wed Dec 15 19:00:00 EST 2021 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces · OSTI ID:1838175

Interstitial Lithium Doping in BiVO₄ Thin Film Photoanode for Enhanced Solar Water Splitting Activity

Journal Article · Mon Jul 13 20:00:00 EDT 2020 · Chemistry of Materials · OSTI ID:1661644

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

Unconventional Relation between Charge Transport and Photocurrent via Boosting Small Polaron Hopping for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Citation Formats

References (32)

Cited By (12)

Similar Records

Related Subjects