Potential-Sensing Electrochemical AFM Shows CoPi as a Hole Collector and Oxygen Evolution Catalyst on BiVO4 Water-Splitting Photoanodes

Nellist, Michael R.; Qiu, Jingjing; Laskowski, Forrest A.  L.; Toma, Francesca M.; Boettcher, Shannon W.

doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.8b01150

Potential-Sensing Electrochemical AFM Shows CoPi as a Hole Collector and Oxygen Evolution Catalyst on BiVO₄ Water-Splitting Photoanodes

Journal Article · 28 August 2018 · ACS Energy Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.8b01150· OSTI ID:1599409

Nellist, Michael R. ^[1]; ^[1]; Laskowski, Forrest A. L. ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[1]

Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Oxide/(oxy)hydroxide overlayers such as cobalt (oxy)hydroxide phosphate (CoPi) enhance the performance of BiVO₄ water-spitting photoanodes, but the mechanism of this enhancement remains unclear. Iin this work, we show that if the BiVO₄ layer is thin and incompletely covers an underlying conductive glass, the performance dramatically decreases as CoPi loading is increased. This is consistent with direct contact between the CoPi and conducting glass that leads to “shunt” recombination of photogenerated holes accumulated in the CoPi. For thicker BiVO4 layers that completely cover the conducting glass, these shunt pathways are blocked. We then use a nanoelectrode atomic force microscopy probe to measure, in operando, the electrochemical potential of CoPi on thick BiVO4 films under illumination. We find that CoPi is charged to a potential necessary to drive water oxidation at a rate consistent with the measured photocurrent. CoPi acts as a hole collector and is the principal driver of water oxidation on BiVO₄.

Research Organization:: Univ. of Oregon, Eugene OR (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Sloan Foundation; Dreyfus Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF); M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust; W. M. Keck Foundation; ONAMI; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

DOE Contract Number:: SC0014279; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1599409

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

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (34)

Junction behavior of n-Si photoanodes protected by thin Ni elucidated from dual working electrode photoelectrochemistry No authors listed Energy & Environmental Science https://doi.org/10.1039/C6EE03505A		January 2017
Adaptive semiconductor/electrocatalyst junctions in water-splitting photoanodes No authors listed Nature Materials https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3811		December 2013
Revised Oxygen Evolution Reaction Activity Trends for First-Row Transition-Metal (Oxy)hydroxides in Alkaline Media No authors listed The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b01650		August 2015
Nature and Light Dependence of Bulk Recombination in Co-Pi-Catalyzed BiVO ₄ Photoanodes No authors listed The Journal of Physical Chemistry C https://doi.org/10.1021/jp3007552		April 2012
Solar water oxidation using nickel-borate coupled BiVO4 photoelectrodes No authors listed Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics https://doi.org/10.1039/c3cp00073g		January 2013
Mechanistic insights into chemical and photochemical transformations of bismuth vanadate photoanodes No authors listed Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12012		July 2016
Discovery of Fe–Ce Oxide/BiVO ₄ Photoanodes through Combinatorial Exploration of Ni–Fe–Co–Ce Oxide Coatings No authors listed ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b06714		August 2016
PeakForce Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy with Nanoelectrode Probes No authors listed Microscopy Today https://doi.org/10.1017/S1551929516000882		October 2016
Cobalt-phosphate (Co-Pi) catalyst modified Mo-doped BiVO4 photoelectrodes for solar water oxidation No authors listed Energy & Environmental Science https://doi.org/10.1039/c1ee02444b		January 2011
Progress in bismuth vanadate photoanodes for use in solar water oxidation No authors listed Chem. Soc. Rev. https://doi.org/10.1039/C2CS35260E		January 2013
Improved Stability of Polycrystalline Bismuth Vanadate Photoanodes by Use of Dual-Layer Thin TiO ₂ /Ni Coatings No authors listed The Journal of Physical Chemistry C https://doi.org/10.1021/jp506133y		August 2014
Catalyst Deposition on Photoanodes: The Roles of Intrinsic Catalytic Activity, Catalyst Electrical Conductivity, and Semiconductor Morphology No authors listed ACS Energy Letters https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.8b00336		March 2018
Near-Complete Suppression of Surface Recombination in Solar Photoelectrolysis by “Co-Pi” Catalyst-Modified W:BiVO ₄ No authors listed Journal of the American Chemical Society https://doi.org/10.1021/ja207348x		November 2011
In Situ Structural Study of MnP_i-Modified BiVO₄ Photoanodes by Soft X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy No authors listed The Journal of Physical Chemistry C https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b06459		September 2017
A Front-Illuminated Nanostructured Transparent BiVO ₄ Photoanode for >2% Efficient Water Splitting No authors listed Advanced Energy Materials https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201501645		November 2015
Efficient solar water splitting by enhanced charge separation in a bismuth vanadate-silicon tandem photoelectrode No authors listed Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3195		July 2013
Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation on Bismuth Vanadate by Electrodeposition of Amorphous Titanium Dioxide No authors listed Journal of the American Chemical Society https://doi.org/10.1021/ja5082475		August 2014
Nanoporous BiVO₄ Photoanodes with Dual-Layer Oxygen Evolution Catalysts for Solar Water Splitting No authors listed Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1246913		February 2014
Marked enhancement in electron–hole separation achieved in the low bias region using electrochemically prepared Mo-doped BiVO ₄ photoanodes No authors listed Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1039/C3CP53649A		January 2014
Cobalt–Iron (Oxy)hydroxide Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysts: The Role of Structure and Composition on Activity, Stability, and Mechanism No authors listed Journal of the American Chemical Society https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5b00281		March 2015
Effects of a SnO ₂ hole blocking layer in a BiVO ₄ -based photoanode on photoelectrocatalytic water oxidation No authors listed Journal of Materials Chemistry A https://doi.org/10.1039/C7TA00806F		January 2017
Efficient and Stable Photo-Oxidation of Water by a Bismuth Vanadate Photoanode Coupled with an Iron Oxyhydroxide Oxygen Evolution Catalyst No authors listed Journal of the American Chemical Society https://doi.org/10.1021/ja209001d		January 2012
Photoinduced Absorption Spectroscopy of CoPi on BiVO ₄ : The Function of CoPi during Water Oxidation No authors listed Advanced Functional Materials https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201600711		May 2016
Photocurrent of BiVO ₄ is limited by surface recombination, not surface catalysis No authors listed Chemical Science https://doi.org/10.1039/C7SC00363C		January 2017
Strategic Modification of BiVO ₄ for Improving Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation Performance No authors listed The Journal of Physical Chemistry C https://doi.org/10.1021/jp400415m		April 2013
Emerging Postsynthetic Improvements of BiVO ₄ Photoanodes for Solar Water Splitting No authors listed ACS Energy Letters https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00834		November 2017
Efficient BiVO ₄ Thin Film Photoanodes Modified with Cobalt Phosphate Catalyst and W-doping No authors listed ChemCatChem https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.201200472		November 2012
Dynamics of photogenerated holes in surface modified -Fe2O3 photoanodes for solar water splitting No authors listed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118326109		July 2012
Direct in Situ Measurement of Charge Transfer Processes During Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation on Catalyzed Hematite No authors listed ACS Central Science https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.7b00310		August 2017
Atomic force microscopy with nanoelectrode tips for high resolution electrochemical, nanoadhesion and nanoelectrical imaging No authors listed Nanotechnology https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/aa5839		January 2017
Semiconductor–Electrocatalyst Interfaces: Theory, Experiment, and Applications in Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting No authors listed Accounts of Chemical Research https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.6b00001		April 2016
Potential-sensing electrochemical atomic force microscopy for in operando analysis of water-splitting catalysts and interfaces No authors listed Nature Energy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-017-0048-1		December 2017
Dynamics of photogenerated holes in undoped BiVO ₄ photoanodes for solar water oxidation No authors listed Chem. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1039/C4SC00469H		January 2014
Highly Improved Quantum Efficiencies for Thin Film BiVO ₄ Photoanodes No authors listed The Journal of Physical Chemistry C https://doi.org/10.1021/jp203004v		August 2011

Similar Records

Metal Oxide/(oxy)hydroxide Overlayers as Hole Collectors and Oxygen-Evolution Catalysts on Water-Splitting Photoanodes

Journal Article · 2018 · Journal of the American Chemical Society · OSTI ID:1599406

Laskowski, Forrest A. L.; Nellist, Michael R.; Qiu, Jingjing; +1 more

Highly Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation Efficiency Based on Triadic Quantum Dot/Layered Double Hydroxide/BiVO ₄ Photoanodes

Journal Article · 2016 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces · OSTI ID:1293806

Tang, Yanqun; Wang, Ruirui; Yang, Ye; +2 more

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

Journal Article · 2021 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces · OSTI ID:1838175

Zhou, Chenyu; Zhang, Lihua; Tong, Xiao; +1 more

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
25 ENERGY STORAGE
Photonics
Radiology
Layers
Catalysts
Water oxidation

Potential-Sensing Electrochemical AFM Shows CoPi as a Hole Collector and Oxygen Evolution Catalyst on BiVO4 Water-Splitting Photoanodes

Citation Formats

References (34)

Similar Records

Related Subjects

Potential-Sensing Electrochemical AFM Shows CoPi as a Hole Collector and Oxygen Evolution Catalyst on BiVO₄ Water-Splitting Photoanodes