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Towards Long‐Term Photostability of Nickel Hydroxide/BiVO 4 Photoanodes for Oxygen Evolution Catalysts via In Situ Catalyst Tuning
Author(s) -
Gao RuiTing,
He Dan,
Wu Lijun,
Hu Kan,
Liu Xianhu,
Su Yiguo,
Wang Lei
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201915671
Subject(s) - catalysis , oxygen evolution , electrolyte , nickel , hydroxide , chemical engineering , non blocking i/o , oxygen , materials science , photochemistry , metal , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , electrode , electrochemistry , metallurgy , biochemistry , organic chemistry , engineering
Increasing long‐term photostability of BiVO 4 photoelectrode is an important issue for solar water splitting. The NiOOH oxygen evolution catalyst (OEC) has fast water oxidation kinetics compared to the FeOOH OEC. However, it generally shows a lower photoresponse and poor stability because of the more substantial interface recombination at the NiOOH/BiVO 4 junction. Herein, we utilize a plasma etching approach to reduce both interface/surface recombination at NiOOH/BiVO 4 and NiOOH/electrolyte junctions. Further, adding Fe 2+ into the borate buffer electrolyte alleviates the active but unstable character of etched‐NiOOH/BiVO 4 , leading to an outstanding oxygen evolution over 200 h. The improved charge transfer and photostability can be attributed to the active defects and a mixture of NiOOH/NiO/Ni in OEC induced by plasma etching. Metallic Ni acts as the ion source for the in situ generation of the NiFe OEC over long‐term durability.