Annealing temperature effects on photoelectrochemical performance of bismuth vanadate thin film photoelectrodes
Type
ArticleAuthors
Shi, Le
Zhuo, Sifei
Abulikemu, Mutalifu

Mettela, Gangaiah
Palaniselvam, Thangavelu
Rasul, Shahid

Tang, Bo

Yan, Buyi
Saleh, Navid B.
Wang, Peng

KAUST Department
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) DivisionElectrical Engineering Program
Environmental Nanotechnology Lab
Environmental Science and Engineering Program
KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC)
KAUST Solar Center (KSC)
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Water Desalination and Reuse Research Center (WDRC)
Date
2018Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/628484
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The effects of annealing treatment between 400 °C and 540 °C on crystallization behavior, grain size, electrochemical (EC) and photoelectrochemical (PEC) oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performances of bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) thin films are investigated in this work. The results show that higher temperature leads to larger grain size, improved crystallinity, and better crystal orientation for the BiVO4 thin film electrodes. Under air-mass 1.5 global (AM 1.5) solar light illumination, the BiVO4 thin film prepared at a higher annealing temperature (500–540 °C) shows better PEC OER performance. Also, the OER photocurrent density increased from 0.25 mA cm−2 to 1.27 mA cm−2 and that of the oxidation of sulfite, a hole scavenger, increased from 1.39 to 2.53 mA cm−2 for the samples prepared from 400 °C to 540 °C. Open-circuit photovoltage decay (OCPVD) measurement indicates that BiVO4 samples prepared at the higher annealing temperature have less charge recombination and longer electron lifetime. However, the BiVO4 samples prepared at lower annealing temperature have better EC performance in the absence of light illumination and more electrochemically active surface sites, which are negatively related to electrochemical double-layer capacitance (Cdl). Cdl was 0.0074 mF cm−2 at 400 °C and it decreased to 0.0006 mF cm−2 at 540 °C. The OER and sulfide oxidation are carefully compared and these show that the efficiency of charge transport in the bulk (ηbulk) and on the surface (ηsurface) of the BiVO4 thin film electrode are improved with the increase in the annealing temperature. The mechanism behind the light-condition-dependent role of the annealing treatment is also discussed.Citation
Shi L, Zhuo S, Abulikemu M, Mettela G, Palaniselvam T, et al. (2018) Annealing temperature effects on photoelectrochemical performance of bismuth vanadate thin film photoelectrodes. RSC Advances 8: 29179–29188. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c8ra04887h.Sponsors
This project is based upon work supported by the King Abdullah University Science and Technology (KAUST) CCF fund, awarded to Water Desalination and Reuse Center (WDRC). The authors are grateful to other members of the KAUST Environmental Nanotechnology group for their insightful discussions.Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)Journal
RSC AdvancesAdditional Links
http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2018/ra/c8ra04887hae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1039/c8ra04887h
Scopus Count
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Electrical and Computer Engineering Program; KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC); KAUST Solar Center (KSC); Water Desalination and Reuse Research Center (WDRC); Environmental Science and Engineering Program; Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division; Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) Division; Articles
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