Prussian Blue Type Cocatalysts for Enhancing the Photocatalytic Water Oxidation Performance of BiVO.

The efficiency of photocatalytic overall water splitting reactions is usually limited by the high energy barrier and complex multiple electron-transfer processes of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Although bismuth vanadate (BiVO ) as the photocatalyst has been developed for enhancing the kinetics of the water oxidation reaction, it still suffers from challenges of fast recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and poor photocatalytic activity. Herein, six M -Co Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) (M=Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn) cocatalysts are synthesized and deposited on the surface of BiVO for boosting the surface catalytic efficiency and enhancing photogenerated carries separation efficiency of BiVO . Six M -Co PBAs@BiVO photocatalysts all demonstrate increased photocatalytic water oxidation performance compared to that of BiVO alone. Among them, the Co-Co PBA@BiVO photocatalyst is employed as a representative research object and is thoroughly characterized by electrochemistry, electronic microscope as well as multiple spectroscopic analyses. Notably, BiVO coupling with Co-Co PBA cocatalyst could capture more photons than that of pure BiVO , facilitating the transfer of photogenerated charge carriers between BiVO and Co-Co PBA as well as the surface catalytic efficiency of BiVO . Overall, this work would promote the synthesis strategy development for exploring new types of composite photocatalysts for water oxidation.