Enhanced photoelectrochemical performance of plate-like WO3 induced by surface oxygen vacancies

The plate-like WO3 photo-electrode with surface oxygen vacancies was fabricated via a H2O2 treatment method for the first time. The concentration of oxygen vacancies could be controlled by tuning the treatment time in H2O2 solution. Under visible light, the WO3 plate anodes with different concentration of surface oxygen vacancies were evaluated for photoelectrochemical water splitting and the optimum photocurrent was about 1.5 times as high as that of pure WO3. This study presents a new insight into improving the light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of WO3 by introducing surface oxygen vacancies.