IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-58102-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A standalone bismuth vanadate-silicon artificial leaf achieving 8.4% efficiency for hydrogen production

Author

Listed:
  • Boyan Liu

    (Northwestern Polytechnical University)

  • Xin Wang

    (Northwestern Polytechnical University)

  • Yingjuan Zhang

    (Northwestern Polytechnical University)

  • Mingshan Zhu

    (Jinan University)

  • Chenxin Zhang

    (Xiamen University)

  • Shaobin Li

    (Xiamen University)

  • Yanhang Ma

    (ShanghaiTech University)

  • Wei Huang

    (Northwestern Polytechnical University)

  • Songcan Wang

    (Northwestern Polytechnical University
    Sanhang Science & Technology Building)

Abstract

The development of scalable photoelectrochemical water splitting with high solar-to-hydrogen efficiency and long-term stability is essential while challenging for practical application. Here, we design a BiVO4 photoanode with gradient distributed oxygen vacancies, which induces strong dipole fields to promote charge separation. Growing sea-urchin-like FeOOH cocatalyst on the photoanode leads to a photocurrent density of 7.0 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode and is stable for over 520 h under AM 1.5 G illumination. By integrating with a silicon photovoltaic cell, the standalone artificial leaf achieves a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 8.4%. The scale-up of these artificial leaves up to 441 cm2 in size can deliver a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 2.7% under natural sunlight. Life cycle assessment analysis shows that solar water splitting has little environmental footprint for hydrogen production. Our study demonstrates the possibility of designing metal oxide-based artificial leaves for scalable solar hydrogen production.

Suggested Citation

  • Boyan Liu & Xin Wang & Yingjuan Zhang & Mingshan Zhu & Chenxin Zhang & Shaobin Li & Yanhang Ma & Wei Huang & Songcan Wang, 2025. "A standalone bismuth vanadate-silicon artificial leaf achieving 8.4% efficiency for hydrogen production," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58102-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58102-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58102-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-58102-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hen Dotan & Avigail Landman & Stafford W. Sheehan & Kirtiman Deo Malviya & Gennady E. Shter & Daniel A. Grave & Ziv Arzi & Nachshon Yehudai & Manar Halabi & Netta Gal & Noam Hadari & Coral Cohen & Avn, 2019. "Decoupled hydrogen and oxygen evolution by a two-step electrochemical–chemical cycle for efficient overall water splitting," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(9), pages 786-795, September.
    2. Francesca M. Toma & Jason K. Cooper & Viktoria Kunzelmann & Matthew T. McDowell & Jie Yu & David M. Larson & Nicholas J. Borys & Christine Abelyan & Jeffrey W. Beeman & Kin Man Yu & Jinhui Yang & Le C, 2016. "Mechanistic insights into chemical and photochemical transformations of bismuth vanadate photoanodes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-11, November.
    3. Negar Shaya & Simon Glöser-Chahoud, 2024. "A Review of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Studies for Hydrogen Production Technologies through Water Electrolysis: Recent Advances," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-21, August.
    4. Dharmesh Hansora & Jin Wook Yoo & Rashmi Mehrotra & Woo Jin Byun & Dongjun Lim & Young Kyeong Kim & Eunseo Noh & Hankwon Lim & Ji-Wook Jang & Sang Il Seok & Jae Sung Lee, 2024. "All-perovskite-based unassisted photoelectrochemical water splitting system for efficient, stable and scalable solar hydrogen production," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 9(3), pages 272-284, March.
    5. Wei-Kean Chong & Boon-Junn Ng & Yong Jieh Lee & Lling-Lling Tan & Lutfi Kurnianditia Putri & Jingxiang Low & Abdul Rahman Mohamed & Siang-Piao Chai, 2023. "Self-activated superhydrophilic green ZnIn2S4 realizing solar-driven overall water splitting: close-to-unity stability for a full daytime," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Jin Hyun Kim & Ji-Wook Jang & Yim Hyun Jo & Fatwa F. Abdi & Young Hye Lee & Roel van de Krol & Jae Sung Lee, 2016. "Hetero-type dual photoanodes for unbiased solar water splitting with extended light harvesting," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-9, December.
    7. Haneol Lim & James L. Young & John F. Geisz & Daniel J. Friedman & Todd G. Deutsch & Jongseung Yoon, 2019. "High performance III-V photoelectrodes for solar water splitting via synergistically tailored structure and stoichiometry," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yong Zuo & Sebastiano Bellani & Michele Ferri & Gabriele Saleh & Dipak V. Shinde & Marilena Isabella Zappia & Rosaria Brescia & Mirko Prato & Luca Trizio & Ivan Infante & Francesco Bonaccorso & Libera, 2023. "High-performance alkaline water electrolyzers based on Ru-perturbed Cu nanoplatelets cathode," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Yang, Wei & Bao, Jingjing & Liu, Hongtao & Zhang, Jun & Guo, Lin, 2023. "Low-grade heat to hydrogen: Current technologies, challenges and prospective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    3. Zhang, Pengfei & Lin, Jianfeng & Zhao, Jie & Lu, Chenyu & Huang, Liang & Lin, Zhaoyong & Bu, Donglei & Huang, Shaoming, 2024. "ZnIn2S4 nanosheets with geometric defects for enhanced solar-driven hydrogen evolution and wastewater treatment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PB).
    4. Yuan Cai & Shujie Wang & Bin Liu & Gong Zhang & Hui Gao & Yuting Tong & Qingfeng Chang & Peng Zhang & Tuo Wang & Jinlong Gong, 2025. "Semi-transparent and stable In2S3/CdTe heterojunction photoanodes for unbiased photoelectrochemical water splitting," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Hamdani, I.R. & Bhaskarwar, A.N., 2021. "Recent progress in material selection and device designs for photoelectrochemical water-splitting," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    6. Tayebi, Meysam & Lee, Byeong-Kyu, 2019. "Recent advances in BiVO4 semiconductor materials for hydrogen production using photoelectrochemical water splitting," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 332-343.
    7. Zhao, Meng-Jie & He, Qian & Xiang, Ting & Ya, Hua-Qin & Luo, Hao & Wan, Shanhong & Ding, Jun & He, Jian-Bo, 2023. "Automatic operation of decoupled water electrolysis based on bipolar electrode," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 583-591.
    8. Yuandong Yan & Ruyi Wang & Qian Zheng & Jiaying Zhong & Weichang Hao & Shicheng Yan & Zhigang Zou, 2023. "Nonredox trivalent nickel catalyzing nucleophilic electrooxidation of organics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Dharmesh Hansora & Rashmi Mehrotra & Eunseo Noh & Jin Wook Yoo & Minkyung Kim & Woo Jin Byun & Jaewang Park & Ji-Wook Jang & Sang Il Seok & Jae Sung Lee, 2025. "Scalable and durable module-sized artificial leaf with a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency over 10%," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Luciano T. Barbosa & Pedro A. C. Rosas & José F. C. Castro & Samuel D. Vasconcelos & Paulo H. R. P. Gama & Douglas C. P. Barbosa, 2025. "Proposal for an Energy Efficiency Index for Green Hydrogen Production—An Integrated Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-29, June.
    11. Zhao, Ning & Wang, Jiangjiang, 2024. "Solar full spectrum management in low and medium temperature light-driven chemical hydrogen synthesis - A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    12. Zhang, Xuewei & Zhou, Wei & Huang, Yuming & Ding, Yani & Li, Junfeng & Xie, Liang & Yu, Yang & Chen, Jiaxiang & Sun, Miaoting & Meng, Xiaoxiao, 2024. "Enhanced hydrogen production enabled by pulsed potential coupled sulfite electrooxidation water electrolysis system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    13. Annika C. Hoppe & Christine Minke, 2025. "Reducing Environmental Impacts of Water Electrolysis Systems by Reuse and Recycling: Life Cycle Assessment of a 5 MW Alkaline Water Electrolysis Plant," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-16, February.
    14. Saraswat, Sushil Kumar & Rodene, Dylan D. & Gupta, Ram B., 2018. "Recent advancements in semiconductor materials for photoelectrochemical water splitting for hydrogen production using visible light," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 228-248.
    15. Xin Kang & Fengning Yang & Zhiyuan Zhang & Heming Liu & Shiyu Ge & Shuqi Hu & Shaohai Li & Yuting Luo & Qiangmin Yu & Zhibo Liu & Qiang Wang & Wencai Ren & Chenghua Sun & Hui-Ming Cheng & Bilu Liu, 2023. "A corrosion-resistant RuMoNi catalyst for efficient and long-lasting seawater oxidation and anion exchange membrane electrolyzer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    16. Liu-Chun Wang & Pei-Yu Chiou & Ya-Ping Hsu & Chin-Lai Lee & Chih-Hsuan Hung & Yi-Hsuan Wu & Wen-Jyun Wang & Gia-Ling Hsieh & Ying-Chi Chen & Li-Chan Chang & Wen-Pin Su & Divinah Manoharan & Min-Chiao , 2023. "Prussian blue analog with separated active sites to catalyze water driven enhanced catalytic treatments," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    17. Y. A. Annaas, 2024. "Hydrogen Via Biological And Photo-Catalytic Technologies," Acta Chemica Malaysia (ACMY), Zibeline International Publishing, vol. 8(1), pages 39-45, August.
    18. Dong, He & Zhang, Haowen & Li, Haoyong & Zhang, Hui & Lu, Wenduo & Sun, Dezhi & Liu, Xinying & Dang, Yan, 2025. "Hybridization of photoanode and biocathode enables biogas upgrading via Methanosarcina barkeri," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    19. Patrizia Ghisellini & Renato Passaro & Sergio Ulgiati, 2025. "Is Green Hydrogen an Environmentally and Socially Sound Solution for Decarbonizing Energy Systems Within a Circular Economy Transition?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-55, May.
    20. Bin Liu & Zheng Qian & Xiang Shi & Haoqing Su & Wentao Zhang & Atsu Kludze & Yuze Zheng & Chengxing He & Rito Yanagi & Shu Hu, 2025. "Solar-driven selective conversion of millimolar dissolved carbon to fuels with molecular flux generation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58102-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.