Ni-Doped BiVO₄ with V⁴⁺ Species and Oxygen Vacancies for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Abstract

Bismuth vanadate is a promising photoanode material for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, but its activity and stability need to be further improved. In this work, we synthesized Ni-doped BiVO₄ abundant with V⁴⁺ species and oxygen defects through an in situ electrodeposition method. The effective doping can decrease the particle size of BiVO₄ and lead to the formation of V⁴⁺ species/oxygen defects. Accordingly, the doped and defective BiVO₄ showed high optical absorption and rapid charge transfer, and further showed much higher PEC activity than pure BiVO₄. Specifically, 5-Ni-BiVO₄ exhibits the highest activity in PEC water splitting, with a photocurrent of 2.39 mA/cm² at 1.23 V versus RHE (the reversible hydrogen electrode), which is 2.5 times higher than pure BiVO₄ (0.94 mA/cm²), and much higher incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) value of 45% (while only 25% for BiVO₄ at ca. 400 nm). This work provides an in situ method for the development of a high-performance photoanode.

Keywords

BiVO₄ / Doping / Photoelectrochemistry / V⁴⁺ species / Oxygen vacancies

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