Mo-doped BiVO4 nanotextured pillars as efficient photoanodes for solar water splitting

Abstract

We present electrospray-deposited nanotextured Mo-doped BiVO4 pillars with improved photo-electrochemical water splitting performance. The three-dimensional nanotextured Mo-BiVO4 pillars exhibit large interstitial spaces, which result in a high photocurrent. The doping of Mo at the optimal concentration (0.15%) results in a two-fold increase in the photocurrent density (PCD) (1.78 mA.cm(-2) at 1.2 V versus Ag/AgCl) over that of pristine BiVO4. We attribute this increase in the PCD to increases in recombination time and in donor (electron) concentration owing to the doping with hexavalent Mo, as confirmed by Bode phase and Mott-Schottky analyses, respectively.