Investigations of photoelectrochemical performance of polycrystalline Bi-doped ZnO thin films

Numerous efforts have been made to investigate, synthesize, and employ renewable energy as a replacement for fossil fuels, which have caused severe environmental degradation. Hydrogen and oxygen can be produced from water molecules using photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, which has attracted a lot of interest because of its potential to help solve the energy crisis and reduce environmental impacts. In this work, fabrication of Bi doped ZnO photoanodes and subsequently their efficiency is being reported. The results show that incorporation of Bi was found to generate additional energy levels, which improved visible light absorption. Bi-incorporated ZnO photoelectrodes showed improved water-splitting performance in PEC tests when compared to those using pure ZnO. The 15% Bi-incorporated ZnO achieved a photocurrent density of 2.70 mA/cm2 at 0.85 V versus RHE, which was quite greater as compared to pure (0.11 mA/cm2), which was supported by the condensed band gap and complex morphology of Bi-incorporated ZnO. In addition, when compared to pure ZnO photoelectrodes, Bi-incorporated ZnO photoelectrodes exhibited maximum stability, which is indicative of superior PEC performance.