Abstract

BiVO4 is ubiquitously known for its potential use as photoanode for PEC-WS due to its well-suited band structure; nevertheless, it suffers from the major drawback of a slow electron hole separation and transportation. We have demonstrated the one-pot synthesis of BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid photoanodes on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)-coated glass substrate using a facile and cost-effective hydrothermal method. The structural, morphological, and optical properties were extensively examined, confirming the formation of hybrid heterostructures. Ternary BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid photoanode electrode showed enhanced PEC performance with photocurrent densities (Jph) of ~2.25 and 5 mA/cm2 for the water and sulfate oxidation, respectively. In addition, the BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid photoanode can convert up to 3.5% of the illuminating light into photocurrent, and exhibits a 0.9% solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency. Similarly, the photocatalytic methylene blue (MB) degradation afforded the highest degradation rate constant value (k = 1.03 × 10−2 min−1) for the BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid sample. It is noteworthy that the PEC/photocatalytic performance of BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid architectures is markedly more significant than that of the pristine BiVO4 sample. The enhanced PEC/photocatalytic performance of the synthesized BiVO4/Ag/rGO hybrid sample can be attributed to the combined effects of strong visible light absorption, improved charge separation-transportation and excellent surface properties.

Details

Title
One-Pot in Situ Hydrothermal Growth of BiVO4/Ag/rGO Hybrid Architectures for Solar Water Splitting and Environmental Remediation
Author
Patil, Santosh S 1 ; Mali, Mukund G 2 ; Mostafa Afifi Hassan 1 ; Patil, Deepak R 3 ; Kolekar, Sanjay S 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Sang-Wan, Ryu 1 

 Department of Physics, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea 
 School of Chemical Sciences, Solapur University, Solapur, MS, India 
 Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET), Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Govt. of India, Pune, India 
 Analytical Chemistry and Material Science Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India 
Pages
1-12
Publication year
2017
Publication date
Aug 2017
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1957274787
Copyright
© 2017. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.