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Title: Selective and Efficient Gd-Doped BiVO4 Photoanode for Two-Electron Water Oxidation to H2O2

Journal Article · · ACS Energy Letters
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [2];  [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); Sungkyunkwan Univ., Suwon (Republic of Korea)
  2. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
  3. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  4. Sungkyunkwan Univ., Suwon (Republic of Korea)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Photoelectrochemical oxidation of water presents a pathway for sustainable production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Here two-electron water oxidation toward H2O2, however, competes with the popular four-electron process to form oxygen and one-electron water oxidation to form OH radical. To date, bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) has been shown to exhibit promising selectivity toward H2O2, especially under illumination, but it suffers from high overpotential and notoriously poor stability. Herein, using density functional theory calculations, we predict that doping BiVO4 with optimal concentrations of gadolinium (Gd) not only enhances its activity for H2O2 production but also improves its stability. Experimentally, we demonstrate that intermediate amounts of Gd doping (6–12%) reduce the onset potential of BiVO4 for H2O2 production by ~110 mV while achieving a Faradaic efficiency of ~99.5% under illumination and prolonging the catalytic lifetime by more than a factor of 20 at 2.0 V vs RHE under illumination.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; 2012M3A6A7054855; 2016M3D1A1027664; 2017R1A2B3010927
OSTI ID:
1505428
Journal Information:
ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 4, Issue 3; ISSN 2380-8195
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (2)

Photocatalytic and Photoelectrochemical Systems: Similarities and Differences journal December 2019
Strategies for enhancing the photocurrent, photovoltage, and stability of photoelectrodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting text January 2019

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