Ag Nanoparticle-Decorated BiVO₄ Electrodeposited Film as Photoanode for Enhancing the Performance of a Photocatalytic H₂O₂ Fuel Cell

Due to the poor water oxidation kinetics and delayed carrier migration efficiency of the BiVO4 photocatalyst, its photocatalytic H2O2 generation and further utilization as the photoanode in self-powered H2O2 fuel cells are limited. In this study, BiVO4 (BVO) electrodeposited on indium–tin oxide (ITO) in combination with the photoreduction of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) has been successfully prepared and then employed as the photoanode to construct an efficient photocatalytic H2O2 fuel cell system. The photocatalytic H2O2 production and cell performance of Ag NP-decorated BVO (ABVO) photoanode are explored in the electrolyte of 0.2 mol L–1 phosphate buffer solution under AM 1.5G (1 sun, 100 mW cm–2) solar irradiation at atmosphere. After the optimization of photoreduction time for Ag NP decoration, the maximum power density of the 20 ABVO-based cell is up to 0.122 mW cm–2, which has around 2.0 times enhancement compared with pure BVO (0.060 mW cm–2). The localized surface plasmon resonance effect of Ag NPs plays an important role in increasing near-field enhancement-induced excitation efficiency, as well as the heterojunction formation between Ag NPs and BVO to effectively promote the generation and migration of photogenerated holes for improving H2O2 production through the water oxidation reaction. This work provides a feasible approach to construct the efficient photoanode for H2O2 production and further develop high-performance photocatalytic H2O2 fuel cells to realize solar energy conversion and utilization.