Spontaneous polarization enhanced bismuth ferrate photoelectrode: fabrication and boosted photoelectrochemical water splitting property

Abstract

In this paper, the fabrication of a highly orientated Bi₂Fe₄O₉ (BFO) photoelectrode in the presence of two-dimensional (2D) graphene oxide (GO) was reported. It was found that the GO can be used as a template for controlling the growth of BFO, and the nanoplate composites of BFO/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) with a high orientation can be fabricated. The thickness of the nanoplates became thinner as the ratio of GO increased. As a result, the ferroelectric spontaneous polarization unit arranges itself in the space in a periodic manner, leading to the formation of a polarization field along a special direction. Therefore, the created built-in electric field of the nanoplate composites of BFO/RGO is improved upon the increase of the amount of RGO. As expected, carrier separation is enhanced by the built-in electric field, therefore substantially enhancing the photoelectrochemical (PEC) activity of water splitting compared to pure BFO under the irradiation of visible-light.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

bismuth ferrate / ferroelectric polarisation / photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting / graphene oxide (GO) / high orientation

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51402314 and 41206067), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2016BM08), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2014M551869), Shandong Excellent Young Scientist Research Award Fund (No. BS2015CL002), and Qingdao Postdoctoral Application Research Fund.

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