Journal
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A
Volume 9, Issue 6, Pages 3309-3313Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/d0ta12181a
Keywords
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Funding
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [BK20190413]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [11575084, 51602153]
- Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
- Funding of Jiangsu Innovation Program for Graduate Education [KYCX19_0177]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [NE2018104]
- Singapore National Research Foundation Investigatorship [NRF-NRFI2018-03]
- China Scholarship Council
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This study introduces a metal-free poly(p-phenylene pyromellitimide) film coated onto a BiVO4 photoanode as a bifunctional catalyst layer and protective layer, showing improved photoelectrochemical activity and excellent stability in alkaline electrolytes.
Low stability of photoanodes in electrolytes, especially in alkaline electrolytes, greatly limits their practical applications. Therefore, it is highly meaningful to develop a strategy to stabilize photoanodes under strongly alkaline conditions. Herein, a metal-free poly(p-phenylene pyromellitimide) film is coated onto a BiVO4 photoanode as a bifunctional catalyst layer and protective layer by in situ thermal polymerization. Structural characterization shows that the polymer film can effectively protect the BiVO4 semiconductor. Photoelectrochemical studies verify that the polymer film can improve the efficiency of the surface-reaching hole reaction and promote the separation of surface carriers. Thus, the polymer-coated photoanode shows a superior photoelectrochemical activity, which is 2.5 times higher than that of the pristine photoanode. Meanwhile, the polymer-coated photoanode also exhibits excellent stability in neutral and alkaline electrolytes. The photocurrent remains above 70% even after a six-hour reaction in a strongly alkaline electrolyte. This work provides a simple solution to stabilize semiconductor photoanodes under alkaline conditions for efficient photoelectrochemical applications.
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