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Plasmonic enhancement in BiVO4 photonic crystals for efficient water splitting.


Type

Article

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Authors

Zhang, Liwu 
Lin, Chia-Yu 
Valev, Ventsislav K 
Steiner, Ullrich 

Abstract

Photo-electrochemical water splitting is a very promising and environmentally friendly route for the conversion of solar energy into hydrogen. However, the solar-to-H2 conversion efficiency is still very low due to rapid bulk recombination of charge carriers. Here, a photonic nano-architecture is developed to improve charge carrier generation and separation by manipulating and confining light absorption in a visible-light-active photoanode constructed from BiVO4 photonic crystal and plasmonic nanostructures. Synergistic effects of photonic crystal stop bands and plasmonic absorption are observed to operate in this photonic nanostructure. Within the scaffold of an inverse opal photonic crystal, the surface plasmon resonance is significantly enhanced by the photonic Bragg resonance. Nanophotonic photoanodes show AM 1.5 photocurrent densities of 3.1 ± 0.1 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 V versus RHE, which is among the highest for oxide-based photoanodes and over 4 times higher than the unstructured planar photoanode.

Description

Keywords

BiVO4, photonic crystals, plasmonic, water splitting

Journal Title

Small

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1613-6810
1613-6829

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/G060649/1)
European Research Council (320503)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/H00338X/2)
European Commission (310184)
UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council. Grant Numbers: EP/H00338X/2, EP/G060649/1 European Community's Seventh Framework Programme. Grant Number: FP7/2007–2013 CARINHYPH project. Grant Number: 310184 Minstry of Science and Technology of Taiwan. Grant Number: 102-2218-E-006-014-MY2 Christian Doppler Research Association OMV Group, a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship. Grant Number: FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF 298012 ERC. Grant Number: 320503