Aerosol-Deposited BiVO 4 Photoelectrodes for Hydrogen Generation

摘要: Hydrogen generation from renewable energy sources will play a key role in the concerted endeavor to constrain climate change. One environmentally friendly route, powered by sunlight, is photoelectrochemical water splitting cell (PEC). This technology employs electrodes coated with thin films of semiconductor materials capture light and generate charge carriers that directly drive reaction. Bismuth vanadate promising metal oxide semiconductor, as it absorbs visible light, abundant, non-toxic cost-effective. The present study investigates formation bismuth aerosol deposition (AD) method. Operating layer at room temperature, AD offers advantages over other routes for fabrication photoactive film coatings, no binders or sintering processes need be applied. Furthermore, compared traditional cold spraying, micrometer-sized particles can used, resulting coatings thicknesses below 1 µm. Additionally, lower kinetic feedstock powder enables use delicate substrates, such FTO-coated glass, expanding range possible PEC device configurations. process parameters explored this had considerable influence on coating microstructure, which turn showed significant impact performance.