Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting and Solar Hydrogen Production
This community develops semiconductor materials and device architectures that use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, primarily for the production of clean fuel.
The research focuses on engineering photoanodes—most notably bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) and hematite (iron oxide)—to improve charge separation and transfer efficiency. Key strategies include creating heterojunctions, introducing oxygen vacancies, and applying cocatalysts to accelerate the oxygen evolution reaction. The work also encompasses the synthesis of thin films and the integration of these components into scalable devices for solar hydrogen generation, with a significant portion of the literature dedicated to optimizing the interface between the semiconductor and the electrolyte.
The community is most heavily represented in research on Bismuth, accounting for 2.6% of all tracked Bismuth research, and Vanadium, accounting for 2.2%. It also constitutes a substantial share of Hydrogen research, representing 0.5% of that element's total output.
The community comprises 9,986 papers, with the highest publication volume in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, and ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Recent work continues to refine BiVO4 photoanodes through lattice strain engineering and transition metal substitution, while also exploring applications in producing disinfectants from seawater and treating wastewater using photoelectrochemical systems.