Abstract
In the present study, pristine BiVO4, TiO2 and BiVO4/TiO2 core-shell heterostructured nanoparticles are prepared by hydrothermal methods and studied for structural, morphological, optical, photoelectrochemical water splitting and photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue as an organic pollutant. Both pristine BiVO4 and TiO2 exhibit poor PEC and PC performance under visible light illumination. However, an enhanced PEC and PC activity in BiVO4/TiO2 core-shell heterostructure is observed due to high solar energy absorption and superior charge separation properties in core-shell nanoparticles. The photoelectrode prepared using BiVO4/TiO2 core-shell nanoparticles exhibit a photocathode behavior and produced cathodic photocurrent, however, the pristine BiVO4 and TiO2 photoelectrodes act as photoanode and produced anodic photocurrent. This behavior of change in current direction is also observe in the Mott-Schottky analysis where the BiVO4/TiO2 core-shell nanoparticles photoelectrode exhibits the positive slow showing p-type semiconducting behavior. The change in cathodic photoresponse in core-shell nanoparticles in comparison to anodic photoresponse of BiVO4 and TiO2 nanoparticles is explained in terms of the variations in the work function values. These results highlight the advantages of core-shell nanoparticle of suitable materials for photocatalytic and photo-electrochemical applications. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.