Enhanced Carrier Transport and Bandgap Reduction in Sulfur-Modified BiVO4 Photoanodes

Marlene Lamers; Wenjie Li; Marco Favaro; David E. Starr; Dennis Friedrich; Sheikha F. Lardhi; Luigi Cavallo; Moussab Harb; Roel van de Krol; Lydia H. Wong; Fatwa F. Abdi

doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b03859

Enhanced Carrier Transport and Bandgap Reduction in Sulfur-Modified BiVO4 Photoanodes

Marlene Lamers, Wenjie Li, Marco Favaro, David E. Starr, Dennis Friedrich, Sheikha F. Lardhi, Luigi Cavallo, Moussab Harb, Roel van de Krol, Lydia H. Wong, Fatwa F. Abdi

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

45 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent progress on bismuth vanadate (BiVO) has shown it to be among the highest performing metal oxide photoanode materials. However, further improvement, especially in the form of thin film photoelectrodes, is hampered by its poor charge carrier transport and its relatively wide bandgap. Here, sulfur incorporation is used to address these limitations. A maximum bandgap decrease of ∼0.3 eV is obtained, which increases the theoretical maximum solar-to-hydrogen efficiency from 9 to 12%. Hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements as well as density functional theory calculations show that the main reason for the bandgap decrease is an upward shift of the valence band maximum. Time-resolved microwave conductivity measurements reveal a ∼3 times higher charge carrier mobility compared to unmodified BiVO, resulting in a ∼70% increase in the carrier diffusion length. This work demonstrates that sulfur incorporation can be a promising and practical method to improve the performance of wide-bandgap metal oxide photoelectrodes.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	8630-8638
Number of pages	9
Journal	Chemistry of Materials
Volume	30
Issue number	23
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b03859
State	Published - Nov 21 2018

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: We acknowledge Sebastian Schmidt and Sonja Cinque for the assistance with XRF measurements. S.L., L.C., and M.H. thank the KAUST Supercomputing Laboratory for giving the needed computational resources.

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https://repository.kaust.edu.sa/bitstream/10754/630318/1/M.Harb_Chem.Mater_30_8630_18.pdf

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@article{029c49137d674229aabaf6b2a2e43602,

title = "Enhanced Carrier Transport and Bandgap Reduction in Sulfur-Modified BiVO4 Photoanodes",

abstract = "Recent progress on bismuth vanadate (BiVO) has shown it to be among the highest performing metal oxide photoanode materials. However, further improvement, especially in the form of thin film photoelectrodes, is hampered by its poor charge carrier transport and its relatively wide bandgap. Here, sulfur incorporation is used to address these limitations. A maximum bandgap decrease of ∼0.3 eV is obtained, which increases the theoretical maximum solar-to-hydrogen efficiency from 9 to 12%. Hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements as well as density functional theory calculations show that the main reason for the bandgap decrease is an upward shift of the valence band maximum. Time-resolved microwave conductivity measurements reveal a ∼3 times higher charge carrier mobility compared to unmodified BiVO, resulting in a ∼70% increase in the carrier diffusion length. This work demonstrates that sulfur incorporation can be a promising and practical method to improve the performance of wide-bandgap metal oxide photoelectrodes.",

author = "Marlene Lamers and Wenjie Li and Marco Favaro and Starr, {David E.} and Dennis Friedrich and Lardhi, {Sheikha F.} and Luigi Cavallo and Moussab Harb and {van de Krol}, Roel and Wong, {Lydia H.} and Abdi, {Fatwa F.}",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledgements: We acknowledge Sebastian Schmidt and Sonja Cinque for the assistance with XRF measurements. S.L., L.C., and M.H. thank the KAUST Supercomputing Laboratory for giving the needed computational resources.",

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doi = "10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b03859",

language = "English (US)",

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T1 - Enhanced Carrier Transport and Bandgap Reduction in Sulfur-Modified BiVO4 Photoanodes

AU - Lamers, Marlene

AU - Li, Wenjie

AU - Favaro, Marco

AU - Starr, David E.

AU - Friedrich, Dennis

AU - Lardhi, Sheikha F.

AU - Cavallo, Luigi

AU - Harb, Moussab

AU - van de Krol, Roel

AU - Wong, Lydia H.

AU - Abdi, Fatwa F.

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledgements: We acknowledge Sebastian Schmidt and Sonja Cinque for the assistance with XRF measurements. S.L., L.C., and M.H. thank the KAUST Supercomputing Laboratory for giving the needed computational resources.

PY - 2018/11/21

Y1 - 2018/11/21

N2 - Recent progress on bismuth vanadate (BiVO) has shown it to be among the highest performing metal oxide photoanode materials. However, further improvement, especially in the form of thin film photoelectrodes, is hampered by its poor charge carrier transport and its relatively wide bandgap. Here, sulfur incorporation is used to address these limitations. A maximum bandgap decrease of ∼0.3 eV is obtained, which increases the theoretical maximum solar-to-hydrogen efficiency from 9 to 12%. Hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements as well as density functional theory calculations show that the main reason for the bandgap decrease is an upward shift of the valence band maximum. Time-resolved microwave conductivity measurements reveal a ∼3 times higher charge carrier mobility compared to unmodified BiVO, resulting in a ∼70% increase in the carrier diffusion length. This work demonstrates that sulfur incorporation can be a promising and practical method to improve the performance of wide-bandgap metal oxide photoelectrodes.

AB - Recent progress on bismuth vanadate (BiVO) has shown it to be among the highest performing metal oxide photoanode materials. However, further improvement, especially in the form of thin film photoelectrodes, is hampered by its poor charge carrier transport and its relatively wide bandgap. Here, sulfur incorporation is used to address these limitations. A maximum bandgap decrease of ∼0.3 eV is obtained, which increases the theoretical maximum solar-to-hydrogen efficiency from 9 to 12%. Hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements as well as density functional theory calculations show that the main reason for the bandgap decrease is an upward shift of the valence band maximum. Time-resolved microwave conductivity measurements reveal a ∼3 times higher charge carrier mobility compared to unmodified BiVO, resulting in a ∼70% increase in the carrier diffusion length. This work demonstrates that sulfur incorporation can be a promising and practical method to improve the performance of wide-bandgap metal oxide photoelectrodes.

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Enhanced Carrier Transport and Bandgap Reduction in Sulfur-Modified BiVO4 Photoanodes

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