Fabricating of Fe2O3/BiVO4 heterojunction based photoanode modified with NiFe-LDH nanosheets for efficient solar water splitting

It is essential to develop a high activity and stability photoanode for enhancing PEC water splitting performance. According to energy band matching principle the Fe2O3/BiVO4 heterojunction based photoanode is constructed by electrodeposition and metal organic decomposition, following by electrodeposited NiFe-LDH on heterojunction to structure a trinary integrating photoanode. The structure of material and PEC properties of the photoanode are systemically studied, the results show that the photoanode achieves the highest photocurrent density that is about 4.25 times and 2 times higher than that of pristine alpha-Fe2O3 and BiVO4 photoanodes. The IPCE value is 3.7 times higher than alpha-Fe2O3 and the onset potential has a significant cathodic shift of 400 mV compared to the pristine alpha-Fe2O3 for the ternary integrating photoanode. These results are higher than or are comparable to other alpha-Fe2O3 composites reported in literatures, which is attributed to the efficient separation of the photoexcited electron-hole pairs and alleviates holes accumulation at the surface of electrode due to the double action of semiconductor junction and co-catalyst of NiFe-LDH.