Plasmon-enhanced nanoporous BiVO4 photoanodes for efficient photoelectrochemical water oxidation

Conversion of solar irradiation into chemical fuels such as hydrogen with the use of a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell is an attractive strategy for green energy. The promising technique of incorporating metal nanoparticles (NPs) in the photoelectrodes is being explored to enhance the performance of the photoelectrodes. In this work, we developed Au-NPs-functionalized nanoporous BiVO4 photoanodes, and utilized the plasmonic effects of Au NPs to enhance the photoresponse. The plasmonic enhancement leads to an AM 1.5 photocurrent of 5.1 +/- 0.1 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 V versus a reverse hydrogen electrode. We observed an enhancement of five times with respect to pristine BiVO4 in the photocurrent with long-term stability and high energy-conversion efficiency. The overall performance enhancement is attributed to the synergy between the nanoporous architecture of BiVO4 and the plasmonic effects of Au NPs. Our further study reveals that the commendable photoactivity arises from the different plasmonic effects and co-catalyst effects of Au NPs.