Oxygen Vacancy-Engineered S-Scheme Heterojunction of BiVO₄@Type II Red Phosphorus for Efficient Photocatalytic...

Solar-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production utilizing S-scheme heterojunctions holds great potential due to their capacity for spatial carrier separation and maintaining a high redox potential. In this work, an S-scheme heterojunction consisting of oxygen vacancy (V_O)-enriched BiVO₄@Type II red phosphorus (BiVO₄@RP) was synthesized by a facile ball-milling approach, resulting in Type II RP nanosheets enwrapping the surface of decahedral BiVO₄. The introduction of V_O in BiVO₄ induces defect electronic states that serve as effective trapping sites for photogenerated electrons at the heterojunction interface. Consequently, the synergistic effect of V_O in BiVO₄ and intimate interfacial contact between BiVO₄ and RP facilitate the migration of photo-electrons through an S-scheme transfer route, thereby enhancing the hydrogen production activity from pure water splitting. Remarkably, the optimized BiVO₄@RP composite achieves a hydrogen evolution rate of 518.5 µmol·h^-1·g^-1 under simulated solar light irradiation. This study may provide valuable insights into the design of defect-modulated S-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts for efficient artificial photosynthesis.