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Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a promising method for storing solar energy in the form of hydrogen fuel, but it is greatly hindered by the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, a facile solution impregnation method is developed for growing ultrathin (2 nm) highly crystalline β-FeOOH nanolayers with abundant oxygen vacancies on BiVO4 photoanodes. These exhibited a remarkable photocurrent density of 4.3 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), AM 1.5 G), which is approximately two times higher than that of amorphous FeOOH fabricated by electrodeposition. Systematic studies reveal that the excellent PEC activity should be attributed to their ultrathin crystalline structure and abundant oxygen vacancies, which could effectively facilitate the hole transport/trapping and provide more active sites for water oxidation.
Zhang et al. (2018) studied this question.