Precursor Development and Aerosol‐Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition for BiVO ₄ and W‐Doped BiVO ₄ Photoanodes: A Universal Ligand Approach

Green hydrogen production is a key area of importance for advancing into a completely sustainable world, not only for its use in industry and ammonia production, but also for its potential as a new fuel. One promising method for generating green hydrogen is light-driven water splitting using photoelectrodes. Here, a bismuth vanadate (BiVO₄) photoanode deposition process was developed using new, bespoke dual-source precursors, tailored for use in aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD). The resulting thin films were highly nanostructured and consisted of phase-pure monoclinic BiVO₄. Pristine films under 1 sun solar irradiation yielded photocurrent densities of 1.23 mA cm^-2 at 1.23 V vs RHE and a peak incident photon-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) of 82 % at 674 nm, the highest performance of any CVD-grown BiVO₄ film to date. A new, AACVD-compatible WO₃ precursor was subsequently designed and synthesised for the deposition of W-doped BiVO₄ within the same single deposition step.