Facile synthesis of tungsten oxide - Bismuth vanadate nanoflakes as photoanode material for solar water splitting

This research article describes the synthesis of hetero-structured WO3/BiVO4 nanoflakes as photoanode material for photoelectrochemical water splitting. The heterojunction WO3/BiVO4 nanoflakes developed by facile hydrothermal method. WO3/BiVO4 uniform films fabricated simply by drop casting technique onto indium oxide tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates. Detailed morphological, structural and compositional characterization of WO3/BiVO4 carried out by XRD, FE-SEM, and EDX techniques. Optical properties studied by Raman and UV-VIS spectroscopy, respectively. The band gap energy of WO3/BiVO4 hetero-junction estimated to be about 2.00 eV. These WO3/BiVO4 heterojunction structures offered enhanced photo-conversion efficiency and increased photo-corrosion stability. In addition, these nanoflakes films showed significantly enhanced photo-electrochemical properties due to their high surface-area and enhanced separation of the photo-generated charge at the WO3/BiVO4 interface. The effect of calcination temperature on WO3/BiVO4 also investigated. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.