[21a-222-1~11] 6.3 Oxide electronics

▲ [21a-222-11] Effect of Zr doping on the structural and optical properties of BiVO₄

〇(D)ABDELLAOUI imane IMANE¹, Mikas Remeika¹, Shigeru Ikeda², Takato Kawaguchi², M.Monirul Islam¹, Tsuyoshi Maeda³, Takayoshi Kusumoto³, Takahiro Wada³, Christian Budich⁴, Takeaki Sakurai¹ (1.Tsukuba Univ., 2.Konan Univ., 3.Ryukoku Univ., 4.Tokyo Instruments)

Keywords:photocatalyst, water splitting, O2-evolving photocatalyst

Generation of hydrogen and oxygen fuels using sunlight via water splitting process is ultimate solution of energy crisis and climate change. For this application, semiconductor with a correct band line-up which photocatalyses with visible light and does not corrode in water is of interest and monoclinic scheelite bismuth vanadate (ms-BiVO₄, n-type semiconductor, band gap 2.4 eV), is an excellent choice. However, photocatalytic activity of BiVO₄ is considerably limited by poor photoexcited charge transport from bulk to the surface. Zirconium (Zr) doping into solution-synthesized ms-BiVO₄ powder enhances its photocatalytic activity for O₂ evolution [1]. In this work we inspect the variations of the structural and optical properties of BiVO₄ powder, introduced by the Zr doping, and compare our results with molybdenum (Mo) doped BiVO₄ that is also known to enhance performance of BiVO₄.