Ingenious preparation of “layered-closed” TiO2-BiVO4-CdS film and its highly stable and sensitive photoelectrochemical cathodic protection performance

Abstract Constructing a photo-anode owning both protection performance and high stability remains urgent for photoelectrochemical cathodic protection technology. In this work, we develop a “layered-closed” heterojunction (m-TiO2-f-BiVO4-c-CdS) with a well-matched energy band. The closed structure benefits to avoid the loss of active materials, and the layered structure with a well-matched energy band promotes the orderly separation of electrons and holes, thereby achieving a highly stable and sensitive photoelectrochemical protection performance in 3.5 wt% NaCl without hole scavenging agent (performance retention rates after 100 cycles and 3.3 h are as high as 86% and 80%, respectively).