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Spontaneous polarization enhanced bismuth ferrate photoelectrode: fabrication and boosted photoelectrochemical water splitting property

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Abstract

In this paper, the fabrication of a highly orientated Bi2Fe4O9 (BFO) photoelectrode in the presence of two-dimensional (2D) graphene oxide (GO) was reported. It was found that the GO can be used as a template for controlling the growth of BFO, and the nanoplate composites of BFO/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) with a high orientation can be fabricated. The thickness of the nanoplates became thinner as the ratio of GO increased. As a result, the ferroelectric spontaneous polarization unit arranges itself in the space in a periodic manner, leading to the formation of a polarization field along a special direction. Therefore, the created built-in electric field of the nanoplate composites of BFO/RGO is improved upon the increase of the amount of RGO. As expected, carrier separation is enhanced by the built-in electric field, therefore substantially enhancing the photoelectrochemical (PEC) activity of water splitting compared to pure BFO under the irradiation of visible-light.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51402314 and 41206067), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2016BM08), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2014M551869), Shandong Excellent Young Scientist Research Award Fund (No. BS2015CL002), and Qingdao Postdoctoral Application Research Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Yan Zhang, Yukun Zhu, Yanhua Peng & Xiaolong Yang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China

    Jian Liu

  3. Laboratory of Clean Energy Chemistry and Materials, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Wei Jiao & Jianqiang Yu

  4. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Jianqiang Yu

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  1. Yan Zhang
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  2. Yukun Zhu
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  3. Yanhua Peng
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  4. Xiaolong Yang
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  5. Jian Liu
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  6. Wei Jiao
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Correspondence to Jianqiang Yu.

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Zhang, Y., Zhu, Y., Peng, Y. et al. Spontaneous polarization enhanced bismuth ferrate photoelectrode: fabrication and boosted photoelectrochemical water splitting property. Front. Energy 15, 781–790 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0782-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0782-8

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