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Regensburg 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik

HL 15: Energy materials (other than photovoltaics)

HL 15.5: Vortrag

Dienstag, 2. April 2019, 10:30–10:45, H33

Photochemical stability of BiVO4 photoanodes for solar water splitting — •Irina Ilicheva, Viktoria Kunzelmann, and Ian Sharp — Walter Schottky Institute and Physics Department, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany

Artificial photosynthesis, the conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels, could be a promising alternative to fossil fuels. One way of realizing this is by photoelectrochemical water splitting. Here, the main challenge is to identify a semiconductor that is simultaneously stable, scalable and efficient. One of the materials showing a suitable electronic structure is the transition metal oxide bismuth vanadate (BiVO4), which has a band gap of 2.5 eV in the visible range. Metal oxide semiconductors are often studied for their superior chemical stability. However, they can suffer from photochemical instability. Recent studies have shown the dissolution of BiVO4 thin films under water splitting conditions, even though thermodynamic considerations predict the formation of a self-passivating, stable bismuth oxide surface layer. In this work, we analyze the photochemical stability of polycrystalline BiVO4 photoanodes by photoelectrochemical methods to gain better insights into the corrosion mechanisms under operating conditions. We intentionally alter the BiVO4 surface state by different surface pre-treatments in order to favor the formation of a stable bismuth oxide phase and to identify possible chemical and electronic passivation schemes. Changes in the morphology are monitored by scanning electron and atomic force microscopy.

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