Facile synthesis of Bi NPs modified BiVO₄/ZnFe₂O₄ heterojunction for PEC water splitting

Solar energy is used as a driving force to create electron-hole pairs on the surface of electrodes, releasing hydrogen and oxygen through oxidative reductionism, which can directly generate clean energy by a lower resource and environmental costs. The novel ternary photoanode was successfully prepared by Bi nanoparticles modified on BiVO4/ZnFe2O4 heterojunction using simple and effective SILAR and impregnation reduction method. Based on the successful construction of heterostructure to accelerate the separation of electron-hole pairs, the addition of plasmonic nanoarchitectures can effectively capture photons and improve the water oxidation performance of semiconductors through the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). The ternary photoanode shows a significant improvement with bare BiVO4 photoanode, its photocurrent density reachs 2.72 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V (vs. RHE), which is 4.2 times higher than that of pure BiVO4 photoanode (0.65 mA cm-2). The IPCE and the ABPE are substantially increased by 2.7 times and 5 times higher than single component, respectively.