NiFe双氢纳米粒子有效提高BiVO4光阳极光电化学水分解性能

近年来, 太阳能驱动的光电化学水分解作为一种高效、环保、可持续的技术, 已经引起了广泛的关注. 为了更好地使用光电化学技术将太阳能转化为化学能, 至关重要的是提高光电极材料的光吸收和光转化效率. BiVO4禁带宽度(Eg=2.4-2.5 eV)小, 具有很好的可见光响应能力, 因此BiVO4光电极材料引起了广泛关注. 但是, 当单独BiVO4作为光电阳极材料时, 电子-空穴对分离弱、载流子传输慢, 从而使BiVO4不能很好地在光电化学水分解中发挥作用. 为了缓解或解决此类限制性因素, 本课题组通过水热法合成了NiFe双氢纳米粒子, 并将其负载于BiVO4电极表面, 光电催化分解水实验表明其产氢效率得到大幅度提高. 同时制备了Ni(OH)2/BiVO4和Fe(OH)2/BiVO4电极并用于研究NiFe/BiVO4电极的反应机理. 在上文基础上, 本文采用电子扫描电镜(SEM)、高分辨投射电镜(HRTEM)、X射线衍射(XRD)、紫外可见漫反射(UV-Vis DRS)等表征手段和线性扫描伏安法(LSV)和电流时间(I-t)等对其光电化学活性进行了测试, 研究了NiFe/BiVO4电极在发生水氧化时的反应机理. SEM结果表明, Ni(OH)2是以纳米片组成的纳米球负载于多孔BiVO4表面; 而当Fe(OH)2负载于BiVO4表面时, BiVO4的纳米尺寸减小; NiFe-LDH纳米粒子负载于BiVO4表面时, 可以明显看见BiVO4纳米颗粒表面包裹着一层更小的纳米粒子.这证明了Ni(OH)2, Fe(OH)2和NiFe-LDH纳米粒子均成功负载于BiVO4表面. 这也得到HRTEM结果的确认. UV-Vis DRS结果表明NiFe-LDH纳米粒子能有效拓宽BiVO4的吸收边, 从而增加对可见光的吸收, 增加了对光的利用率. LSV测试结果表明, 暗反应条件下Ni(OH)2/BiVO4比NiFe/BiVO4和Fe(OH)2/BiVO4电极的起始电位更低, 说明Ni(OH)2有更好的传输电子性能; 而在光照条件下, 在同一电位时NiFe/BiVO4比Ni(OH)2/BiVO4和Fe(OH)2/BiVO4电极的光电流值更高. 值得注意的是, 此时Ni(OH)2/BiVO4比Fe(OH)2/BiVO4电极的光电流值低, 这又说明Fe(OH)2比Ni(OH)2对光更敏感. 因此当NiFe-LDH纳米粒子负载于BiVO4表面时, 不仅提高了BiVO4光电极的光吸收效率, 而且加速了载流子的传输从而抑制了光生电子-空穴的复合, 使反应过程中的量子效率得到提高.

NiFe layered double-hydroxide nanoparticles for efficiently enhancing performance of BiVO4 photoanode in photoelectrochemical water splitting

A bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) photoanode with a cocatalyst consisting of NiFe layered dou-ble-hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) nanoparticles was fabricated for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water split-ting. NiFe-LDH nanoparticles, which can improve light-absorption capacities and facilitate efficient hole transfer to the surface, were deposited on the surface of the BiVO4photoanode by a hydro-thermal method. All the samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron mi-croscopy, and diffuse-reflectance spectroscopy. Linear sweep voltammetry and current-time plots were used to investigate the PEC activity. The photocurrent response of NiFe-LDH/BiVO4at 1.23 V vs the reversible hydrogen electrode was higher than those of Ni(OH)2/BiVO4, Fe(OH)2/BiVO4and pure BiVO4electrodes under visible-light illumination. NiFe-LDH/BiVO4also gave a superior PEC hydrogen evolution performance. Furthermore, the stability of the NiFe-LDH/BiVO4photoanode was excellent compared with that of the bare BiVO4photoanode, and offers a novel method for solar-assisted water splitting.