Alternating 3rd‐ to 2nd‐order charge reaction kinetics on bismuth vanadate photoanodes with ultrathin bismuth metal‐organic‐frameworks

The most challenging obstacle for photocatalysts to efficiently harvest solar energy is the sluggish surface redox reaction (e.g., oxygen evolution reaction, OER) kinetics, which is believed to originate from interface catalysis rather than the semiconductor photophysics. In this work, we developed a light-modulated transient photocurrent (LMTPC) method for investigating surface charge accumulation and reaction on the W-doped bismuth vanadate (W:BiVO4) photoanodes during photoelectrochemical water oxidation. Under illuminating conditions, the steady photocurrent corresponds to the charge transfer rate/kinetics, while the integration of photocurrent (I~t) spikes during the dark period is regarded as the charge density under illumination. Quantitative analysis of the surface hole densities and photocurrents at 0.6 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode results in an interesting rate-law kinetics switch: a 3rd-order charge reaction behavior appeared on W:BiVO4, but a 2nd-order charge reaction occurred on W:BiVO4 surface modified with ultrathin Bi metal-organic-framework (Bi-MOF). Consequently, the photocurrent for water oxidation on W:BiVO4/Bi-MOF displayed a 50% increment. The reaction kinetics alternation with new interface reconstruction is proposed for new mechanism understanding and/or high-performance photocatalytic applications.