Premium
Improvement of Photoelectrochemical and Stability Properties of Electrodeposited Cu 2 O Thin Films by Annealing Processes
Author(s) -
Jamali Soolmaz,
Moshaii Ahmad,
Mohammadian Nasim
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201700380
Subject(s) - photocathode , annealing (glass) , photocurrent , materials science , electrolyte , thin film , water splitting , analytical chemistry (journal) , photoelectrochemistry , electrode , electrochemistry , metallurgy , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , chemistry , photocatalysis , electron , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , chromatography , catalysis
The synthesization of Cu 2 O thin films by electrodeposition for photoelectrochemical water splitting is reported. The synthesized Cu 2 O samples are annealed at different temperatures between 300 and 500 °C. The XRD analysis and SEM images indicate that the sample without annealing includes Cu 2 O grains with pyramid shape. With annealing to more than 300 °C, due to the oxidization of the sample, a thin layer of CuO appears on the original Cu 2 O film and the crystalline signatures of such CuO structure increase with annealing at higher temperatures. The photoelectrochemical measurements indicate that annealing pure Cu 2 O by more than 300 °C, remarkably increases the photocurrent achieved from this photocathode. The effect is accompanied with considerable improvement of chemical stability of the original Cu 2 O electrode during water splitting. Such protection effect, which is originated from generation of CuO on the samples, increases with the annealing temperature up to 500 °C. However, the best photocurrent from the Cu 2 O/CuO composite is obtained from the annealing temperature of about 400 °C. The results of impedance analysis of various annealed samples indicate that annealing at a higher temperature, better charge transfer occurs both at the interface of photocathode/electrolyte and inside the photocathode.