Construction of Y-Doped BiVO₄ Photocatalysts for Efficient Two-Electron O₂ Reduction to H₂ O₂

Photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide (H₂ O₂ ) production on BiVO₄ photocatalysts using water and oxygen as raw materials is a green and sustainable process. However, the photocatalytic efficiency of pristine BiVO₄ is limited by severe charge recombination. In this work, rare earth element Yttrium (Y) doped BiVO₄ photocatalysts were fabricated by the hydrothermal method. In the photocatalytic H₂ O₂ production experiment, the optimized Y-doped BiVO₄ photocatalyst produced 114 μmol g^-1  h^-1 of H₂ O₂ under simulated sunlight (AM1.5) irradiation, which is four times higher than production activity of pure BiVO₄ (26 μmol g^-1  h^-1 ). Density functional theory (DFT) calculation revealed that Y doping can enhance oxygen adsorption on the BiVO₄ photocatalyst surface. Mechanistic investigations suggest that the doping process induces the in situ formation of monoclinic/tetragonal BiVO₄ heterojunction, which further promotes the photogenerated carriers separation efficiency.