Current trending and beyond for solar-driven water splitting reaction on WO3 photoanodes

Author(s)

Costa, Magno B. ; de Araujo, Moises A. ; Tinoco, Marcos V. de Lima ; de Brito, Juliana F. ; Mascaro, Lucia H.

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: JOURNAL OF ENERGY CHEMISTRY; v. 73, p. 26-pg., 2022-07-05.

Abstract

This review shows the importance of WO3 photoanode as a potentially low-cost, efficient, stable, and photoactive material for light-driven water splitting. For such, this manuscript aims to review the most recent publications regarding the strategies to improve the phoelectroactivity of WO3 films for water oxidation. In addition, this review aims to graphically highlight and discuss the general trendings of the photocurrent density response and stability test of the recent outstanding studies in the literature for photoelectrochemical water splitting application. The strategies covered in this review will not only concern the WO3 morphology and crystal plane growth, but also the many arrangements possibilities to improve the WO(3 )efficiency for water photoelectrooxidation, such as defect engineering based on oxygen vacancies, doping, decorations, and homo and heterojunctions. All these strategies are compared by the photocurrent density results and by the stability of these photocatalysts. The best results in this sense were observed in cases where the use of heterojunction was applied together with a desired morphology and crystal plane of the WO3 photoanode. However, the modifications that caused a decrease in the photocurrent density reaching values that are even lower than the pure WO3 were also discussed. In this way, this review intends to improve the knowledge about the synthesis and design of WO3 photoanodes to further obtain an efficient photocatalyst to minimize the recombination losses or losses across the interfaces and improve the photoelectroactivity for water splitting in the large-scale application. (C) 2022 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/50249-8 - Green chemistry: sustainable synthetic methods employing benign solvents, safer reagents, and bio-renewable feedstock
• Grantee: Arlene Gonçalves Corrêa
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research Centers in Engineering Program
• FAPESP's process: 17/11986-5 - Generation and storage of New Energy: bringing technological development for the country
• Grantee: Ana Flávia Nogueira
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research Centers in Engineering Program
• FAPESP's process: 18/16401-8 - Photocatalysts and photoelectrodes for obtaining renewable fuels
• Grantee: Lucia Helena Mascaro Sales
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 17/21365-8 - Electrodeposition and characterization of Sb2Se3 and MSbxSey (M = Cu, Co, Ni, or Zn) thin films for applications in the hydrogen production and CO2 reduction.
• Grantee: Magno Barcelos Costa
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 16/12681-0 - Preparation and characterization of ternary sulfide semiconductor thin films of antimony and tin, TAS (T = tin, antimony and A = S = sulfur), for use in photovoltaic cells
• Grantee: Moisés Albuquerque de Araújo
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 13/07296-2 - CDMF - Center for the Development of Functional Materials
• Grantee: Elson Longo da Silva
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers - RIDC
• FAPESP's process: 18/02950-0 - Photoelectrocatalytic reduction of N2 to NH3 in a photoelectrochemistry reactor with a photoanode-driven of Nb2O5/Pt and cathode of GDL decorated with Fe, Co and Sb2Se3
• Grantee: Juliana Ferreira de Brito
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 19/22131-6 - Study of methods for PT deposition on thin films of Sb2Se3 and its impact in the photoelectrochemistry answer of the material
• Grantee: Marcos Vinicius de Lima Tinoco
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation