Photoelectrocatalytic generation of H₂ and S from toxic H₂S by using a novel BiOI/WO₃ nanoflake array photoanode

Abstract

In this paper, a photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) recovery of toxic H₂S into H₂ and S system was proposed using a novel bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI)/ tungsten trioxide (WO₃) nano-flake arrays (NFA) photoanode. The BiOI/WO₃ NFA with a vertically aligned nanostructure were uniformly prepared on the conductive substrate via transformation of tungstate following an impregnating hydroxylation of BiI₃. Compared to pure WO₃ NFA, the BiOI/WO₃ NFA promotes a significant increase of photocurrent by 200%. Owing to the excellent stability and photoactivity of the BiOI/WO₃ NFA photoanode and I^–/{\mathrm{I}}_{\mathrm{3}}^{-} catalytic system, the PEC system toward splitting of H₂S totally converted S^2– into S without any polysulfide ({\mathrm{S}}_x^{n-}) under solar-light irradiation. Moreover, H₂ was simultaneously generated at a rate of about 0.867 mL/(h·cm). The proposed PEC H₂S splitting system provides an efficient and sustainable route to recover H₂ and S.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI)/ tungsten trioxide (WO₃) nano-flake arrays (NFA) / photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) / H₂S splitting / H₂ / S

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2018YFE0122300 and 2018YFB1502001), Shanghai International Science and Technology Cooperation Fund Project (No. 18520744900), and the SJTU-AMED.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0775-7 and is accessible for authorized users.

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