Efficient BiVO 4 Photoanodes by Postsynthetic Treatment: Remarkable Improvements in Photoelectrochemical Performance from Facile Borate Modification

Abstract

Water‐splitting photoanodes based on semiconductor materials typically require a dopant in the structure and co‐catalysts on the surface to overcome the problems of charge recombination and high catalytic barrier. Unlike these conventional strategies, a simple treatment is reported that involves soaking a sample of pristine BiVO 4 in a borate buffer solution. This modifies the catalytic local environment of BiVO 4 by the introduction of a borate moiety at the molecular level. The self‐anchored borate plays the role of a passivator in reducing the surface charge recombination as well as that of a ligand in modifying the catalytic site to facilitate faster water oxidation. The modified BiVO 4 photoanode, without typical doping or catalyst modification, achieved a photocurrent density of 3.5 mA cm −2 at 1.23 V and a cathodically shifted onset potential of 250 mV. This work provides an extremely simple method to improve the intrinsic photoelectrochemical performance of BiVO 4 photoanodes.