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A Facile Synthetic Method to Obtain Bismuth Oxyiodide Microspheres Highly Functional for the Photocatalytic Processes of Water Depuration
Published on: March 29, 2019
A theoretical study on the mechanism of photocatalytic oxygen evolution on BiVO4 in aqueous solution
Jingxiu Yang1, Donge Wang, Xin Zhou
1State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023, PR China.
Abstract:
The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is regarded as one of the key issues in achieving efficient photocatalytic water splitting. Monoclinic scheelite BiVO(4) is a visible-light-responsive semiconductor which has proved to be effective for oxygen evolution. Recently, the synthesis of a series of monoclinic BiVO(4) single crystals was reported, and it was found that the (010), (110), and (011) facets are highly exposed and that the photocatalytic O(2) evolution activity depends on the degree of exposure of the (010) facets. To explore the properties of and photocatalytic water oxidation reaction on different facets, DFT calculations were performed to investigate the geometric structure, optical properties, electronic structure, water adsorption, and the whole OER free-energy profiles on BiVO(4) (010) and (011) facets. The calculated results suggest both favorable and unfavorable factors for OER on the (010) and the (011) facets. Due to the combined effects of the above-mentioned factors, different facets exhibit quite different photocatalytic activities.
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