Journal of Energy Chemistry

Journal of Energy Chemistry ›› 2022, Vol. 73 ›› Issue (10): 88-113.DOI: 10.1016/j.jechem.2022.06.003

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Current trending and beyond for solar-driven water splitting reaction on WO3 photoanodes

Magno B. Costaa, Moisés A. de Araújob, Marcos V. de Lima Tinocoa, Juliana F. de Britoa,c, Lucia H. Mascaroa,*   

  1. aDepartamento de Química, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rodovia Washington Luiz, km 235, São Carlos, São Paulo 13565-905, Brazil;
    bInstituto de Química de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Trabalhador Sancarlense, 400, São Carlos, São Paulo 13566-590, Brazil;
    cInstituto de Química, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rua Professor Francisco Degni, s/n, Araraquara, São Paulo 14800-900, Brazil
  • Received:2022-05-04 Revised:2022-06-03 Accepted:2022-06-06 Online:2022-10-15 Published:2022-10-24
  • Contact: *E-mail address:lmascaro@ufscar.br (L.H. Mascaro).
  • About author:Magno B. Costa received his licentiate degree in Chemistry (2015) from the Instituto Federal do Espírito Santo (IFES), Brazil, and his MSc degree in Physical Chemistry (2017) from the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), Brazil. He is currently pursuing his PhD degree in Physical Chemistry at the UFSCar, Brazil, under the supervision of Prof. Lucia H. Mascaro. His research interests are focused on the synthesis and characterization of nanostructured semiconductor thin films for photoelectrochemical applications.
    Moisés A. de Araújo received his BSc degree in Chem-istry (2013) and MSc degree in Chemistry (2015) from the Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) and UFSCar, Brazil, respectively. He recently obtained his PhD degree in Science (concentration area: Physical Chemistry) (2020) from the UFSCar, Brazil, under the supervision of Prof. Lucia H. Mascaro. Currently, de Araújo is a post-doctoral fellow at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil, working on the obtainment of chalcogenide-based semiconductor films for light-driven H2 genera-tion and photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction. de Araú-jo's research interests include the synthesis and characterization of nanostructured semiconductor thin films for photoelectro-chemical and photovoltaic cell applications.
    Marcos V. de Lima Tinoco is currently an undergrad-uate student in Chemistry at the UFSCar, Brazil, where he developed his undergraduate research project at the Laboratório Interdisciplinar de Eletroquímica e Cerâ-mica (LIEC), Brazil. The project focused on Pt deposition on Sb2Se3 thin films and its impact on the photoelec-trochemical response for light-driven hydrogen evolu-tion reaction. Additionally, Tinoco worked voluntarily at the Laboratório de Pesquisa em Eletroquímica (LAPE), Brazil, focusing on the synthesis of magnetic photocat-alysts for the degradation of organic dyes.
    Juliana F. de Brito is a Temporary Lecturer at the UFS-Car, Brazil, and has recently been appointed as a pro-fessor at the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Brazil. She concluded her PhD in 2018 from the UNESP, Brazil, and did her postdoc at the LIEC, Brazil until 2021 with research based on CO2 reduction, N2 reduction, and semiconductor development. The researcher has extensive experience in the areas of Analytics, Electro-chemistry, and Environmental Chemistry with empha-sis on the development of semiconductors, in addition to working with materials characterization and analysis and quantification of products generated in reduction reactions using techniques such as liquid, gas, and ion chromatography.
    Lucia H. Mascaro has been a professor in the Depart-ment of Chemistry at the UFSCar, Brazil, since 2006. She holds an MSc degree (1988) and a PhD degree (1992) in Chemistry, both from the UFSCar, Brazil. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the USP, Brazil (1994-1996), and the University of Bath, United Kingdom (2013-2014). Mascaro's research topics include corrosion, (photo)-electroanalysis, and preparation and characterization of semiconductor materials as well as metals and alloys for (photo)electrochemical water splitting and photovoltaic cell applications.

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Abstract: This review shows the importance of WO3 photoanode as a potentially low-cost, efficient, stable, and photoactive material for light-driven water splitting. For such, this manuscript aims to review the most recent publications regarding the strategies to improve the phoelectroactivity of WO3 films for water oxidation. In addition, this review aims to graphically highlight and discuss the general trendings of the photocurrent density response and stability test of the recent outstanding studies in the literature for photoelectrochemical water splitting application. The strategies covered in this review will not only concern the WO3 morphology and crystal plane growth, but also the many arrangements possibilities to improve the WO3 efficiency for water photoelectrooxidation, such as defect engineering based on oxygen vacancies, doping, decorations, and homo and heterojunctions. All these strategies are compared by the photocurrent density results and by the stability of these photocatalysts. The best results in this sense were observed in cases where the use of heterojunction was applied together with a desired morphology and crystal plane of the WO3 photoanode. However, the modifications that caused a decrease in the photocurrent density reaching values that are even lower than the pure WO3 were also discussed. In this way, this review intends to improve the knowledge about the synthesis and design of WO3 photoanodes to further obtain an efficient photocatalyst to minimize the recombination losses or losses across the interfaces and improve the photoelectroactivity for water splitting in the large-scale application.

Key words: Solar energy, H2 production, N-type semiconductor, Photoelectrode design, Oxygen evolution reaction