• Turner, John A.
• Furtak, Thomas E.
• Herring, Andrew M.
• Brown, Logan D.
• Deutsch, Todd G.
• Pilli, Satyananda Kishore

Abstract

A facile and simple procedure for the synthesis of semi-transparent and porous SiO{sub 2}-BiVO{sub 4} electrodes is reported. The method involves a surfactant assisted metal-organic decomposition at 500 C. An earth abundant oxygen evolution catalyst (OEC), cobalt phosphate (Co-Pi), has been used to modify the SiO{sub 2}-BiVO{sub 4} electrode by electrodeposition (ED) and photoassisted electrodeposition (PED) methods. Modified electrodes by these two methods have been examined for light induced water oxidation and compared to the unmodified SiO{sub 2}-BiVO{sub 4} electrodes by various photoelectrochemical techniques. The PED method was a more effective method of OEC preparation than the ED method as evidenced by an increased photocurrent magnitude during photocurrent-potential (I-V) characterizations. Electrode surfaces catalyzed by PED exhibited a very large cathodic shift (420 mV) in the onset potential for water oxidation. The chopped-light I-V measurements performed at different intervals over 24-hour extended testing under illumination and applied bias conditions show a fair photostability for PED Co-Pi modified SiO{sub 2}-BiVO{sub 4}.

Topics

• porous
• impedance spectroscopy
• surface
• Oxygen
• cobalt
• electrodeposition
• decomposition
• surfactant