A Simplified Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (s-SILAR) Method for Growth of Porous BiVO4 Thin Films for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation

Since monoclinic bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) has been considered to be a promising anode material for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, the synthesis of high-quality BiVO4 photoanodes for use in PEC cells is beneficial. Here, we report a facile simplified successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (s-SILAR) method to synthesize porous BiVO4 films. Evaluation of the porous BiVO4 film as a photoanode yielded photocurrents of similar to 0.70 and similar to 1.20 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 V vs RHE under AM1.5G irradiation for water and sulfite oxidation, respectively. After coupling with a cobalt-phosphate (Co-P-i) catalyst, its photocurrent for water oxidation increased to similar to 0.97 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 V vs RHE. The high performance of the resultant BiVO4 films and simplicity of operation make this s-SILAR technique a promising strategy to prepare BiVO4 photoanodes. (C) 2017 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.