Prussian Blue Type Cocatalysts for Enhancing the Photocatalytic Water Oxidation Performance of BiVO 4 .

The efficiency of photocatalytic overall water splitting reactions is usually limited by the high energy barrier and complex multiple electron-transfer processes of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Although bismuth vanadate (BiVO 4 ) as the photocatalyst has been developed for enhancing the kinetics of the water oxidation reaction, it still suffers from challenges of fast recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and poor photocatalytic activity. Herein, six M II -Co III Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) (M=Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn) cocatalysts are synthesized and deposited on the surface of BiVO 4 for boosting the surface catalytic efficiency and enhancing photogenerated carries separation efficiency of BiVO 4 . Six M II -Co III PBAs@BiVO 4 photocatalysts all demonstrate increased photocatalytic water oxidation performance compared to that of BiVO 4 alone. Among them, the Co-Co PBA@BiVO 4 photocatalyst is employed as a representative research object and is thoroughly characterized by electrochemistry, electronic microscope as well as multiple spectroscopic analyses. Notably, BiVO 4 coupling with Co-Co PBA cocatalyst could capture more photons than that of pure BiVO 4 , facilitating the transfer of photogenerated charge carriers between BiVO 4 and Co-Co PBA as well as the surface catalytic efficiency of BiVO 4 . Overall, this work would promote the synthesis strategy development for exploring new types of composite photocatalysts for water oxidation.