In a conventional photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting system using BiVO₄ (BVO), most of the charge carriers have very sluggish reaction kinetics for photocatalysis. It is because they are easily recombined from the defects developed from the bulk or the surface of the photoanodes before reaching the fluorine-doped tin dioxide (FTO). Herein, we present a facile design and fabrication of a Ag-BVO/BiFeO₃ (BFO) heterostructure photoanodes by doping of Ag and surface passivation with BFO on the as-prepared BVO photoanode, and its photocatalytic properties for PEC water splitting and degradation of tetracycline (TC) is compared to those of BVO/BFO as well as BVO, and Ag-BVO photocatalyst nanoparticles (NPs)/films. The effect of Ag-doping/BFO surface passivation on morphological, structural, optical properties and surface electronic structure of as-obtained BVO electrodes was investigated. The photocatalytic degradation of TC in aqueous solution by Ag-BVO/BFO was greatly increased almost 2.75-fold compared to that of BVO with complete photodegradation was achieved after 50 min of visible-light irradiation. The as-prepared Ag-BVO/BFO heterojunction photoanode not only exhibit 4-fold higher PEC performance (0.72 mA cm⁻² vs. RHE) and stability than that of the pure BVO components, but also the onset potential in Ag-BVO/BFO photoanode shows a cathodic shift by 600 mV compared to the bare BVO. The Ag-BVO/BFO photoelectrode with the highest donor densities and the lowest charge transfer resistance exhibit 4.46-fold higher carrier densities than that of the pure BVO photoelectrode. More specifically, the Mott-Schottky (MS) and Impedance results reveal that the Ag-doping could not only effectively increase the carrier charge density of BVO, thus leading to increase the consumption rate of charge carriers, but also increase charge transfer and transport efficiencies of BVO photoanodes. In addition, the surface passivation with BFO can significantly improve the charge separation and hole transfer efficiencies to photoanode-electrolyte interface for water oxidation.

在使用BiVO ₄（BVO）的常规光电化学（PEC）水分解系统中，大多数电荷载流子的光催化反应动力学非常缓慢。这是因为在到达掺杂氟的二氧化锡（FTO）之前，它们很容易与光电阳极的整体或表面所形成的缺陷重新结合。在此，我们介绍了一种Ag-BVO / BiFeO ₃的简便设计和制造。（BFO）通过在制备的BVO光阳极上掺杂Ag和用BFO进行表面钝化而形成异质结构光阳极，并将其对PEC的水分解和四环素（TC）降解的光催化性能与BVO / BFO和BVO相比和Ag-BVO光催化剂纳米颗粒（NPs）/薄膜。研究了Ag掺杂/ BFO表面钝化对所获得的BVO电极的形态，结构，光学性质和表面电子结构的影响。与BVO相比，Ag-BVO / BFO对水溶液中TC的光催化降解大大提高了几乎2.75倍，可见光照射50分钟后实现了完全光降解。制备的Ag-BVO / BFO异质结光电阳极不仅具有4倍高的PEC性能（0.72 mA cm ^-2与RHE相比），稳定性比纯BVO组分更高，而且与裸BVO相比，Ag-BVO / BFO光电阳极的起始电位也显示出600 mV的阴极位移。具有最高施主密度和最低电荷转移电阻的Ag-BVO / BFO光电极表现出的载流子密度是纯BVO光电极的载流子密度的4.46倍。更具体地说，Mott-Schottky（MS）和阻抗结果表明，Ag掺杂不仅可以有效地提高BVO的载流子电荷密度，从而提高了电荷载流子的消耗率，而且还提高了电荷转移和传输效率BVO光电阳极。此外，用BFO进行的表面钝化可以显着改善电荷分离和空穴转移至光阳极-电解质界面以进行水氧化的效率。