Improved the chrage transfer for highly efficient photoelectrochemical water oxidation: the case of WO3 and BiVO4

The tungsten oxide (WO3) and bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) thin films were successfully deposited on indium doped tin oxide (ITO) by dc reactive magnetron sputtering and spin coating technique, respectively. The physical structural were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The photoelectrocatalytic water oxidation of ITO/WO3 and ITO/WO3/BiVO4 electrodes were compared under visible light irradiation. The double layer of WO3/BiVO4 thin film are present the enhancing efficiency of water oxidation comparing with single WO3 layer. The results showed the improvement of charge transfer by using heterojunction nanostructure semiconductor electrode in order to suppress the recombination effect and enhance an efficient of water splitting. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of SACT 2016.