A novel and facile solvothermal-and-hydrothermal method for synthesis of uniform BiVO₄ film with high photoelectrochemical performance

This paper reports a facile method for synthesis of highly photoresponsive flower-like monoclinic scheelite BiVO₄ on FTO glass. The whole processes include a solvothermal step and a subsequent hydrothermal step with bismuth nitrate hydrate and ammonia metavanadate as the bismuth and vanadium sources, respectively. Based on experimental parametric analyses, the optimal condition has been obtained for fabrication of highly responsive flower-like BiVO₄ films. The BiVO₄ films produced have stronger hardness than those prepared by conventional physical methods. The BiVO₄ films exhibit superior photocatalytic activity under simulated solar irradiation. In a photoelectrochemical system, using the present BiVO₄ film for electricity generation, the applied bias photon-current efficiency is achieved 0.39% under the optimal conditions at 0.7 V vs. RHE.