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Unveiling the Activity and Stability Origin of BiVO 4 Photoanodes with FeNi Oxyhydroxides for Oxygen Evolution
Author(s) -
Zhang Beibei,
Huang Xiaojuan,
Zhang Yan,
Lu Gongxuan,
Chou Lingjun,
Bi Yingpu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.202008198
Subject(s) - oxygen evolution , dissolution , water splitting , chemical engineering , nickel , density functional theory , oxygen , materials science , ion , chemistry , catalysis , nanotechnology , inorganic chemistry , electrode , metallurgy , computational chemistry , electrochemistry , photocatalysis , organic chemistry , engineering
Abstract Understanding the origin of formation and active sites of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) cocatalysts is highly required for solar photoelectrochemical (PEC) devices that generate hydrogen efficiently from water. Herein, we employed a simple pH‐modulated method for in situ growth of FeNi oxyhydroxide ultrathin layers on BiVO 4 photoanodes, resulting in one of the highest currently known PEC activities of 5.8 mA cm −2 (1.23 V RHE , AM 1.5 G) accompanied with an excellent stability. More importantly, both comparative experiments and density functional theory (DFT) studies clearly reveal that the selective formation of Bi−O−Fe interfacial bonds mainly contributes the enhanced OER activities, while the construction of V−O−Ni interfacial bonds effectively restrains the dissolution of V 5+ ions and promotes the OER stability. Thereby, the synergy between iron and nickel of FeNi oxyhydroxides significantly improved the PEC water oxidation properties of BiVO 4 photoanodes.