Nanoengineered Advanced Materials for Enabling Hydrogen Economy: Functionalized Graphene-Incorporated Cupric Oxide Catalyst for Efficient Solar Hydrogen Production.

Cupric oxide (CuO) is a promising candidate as a photocathode for visible-light-driven photo-electrochemical (PEC) water splitting. However, the stability of the CuO photocathode against photo-corrosion is crucial for developing CuO-based PEC cells. This study demonstrates a stable and efficient photocathode through the introduction of graphene into CuO film (CuO:G). The CuO:G composite electrodes are prepared using graphene-incorporated CuO sol-gel solution via spin-coating techniques. The graphene is modified with two different types of functional groups, such as amine (-NH) and carboxylic acid (-COOH). The -COOH-functionalized graphene incorporation into CuO photocathode exhibits better stability and also improves the photocurrent generation compare to control CuO electrode. In addition, -COOH-functionalized graphene reduces the conversion of CuO phase into cuprous oxide (CuO) during photo-electrochemical reaction due to effective charge transfer and leads to a more stable photocathode. The reduction of CuO to CuO phase is significantly lesser in CuO:G-COOH as compared to CuO and CuO:G-NH photocathodes. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) by CuO, CuO:G-NH and CuO:G-COOH is also investigated. By integrating CuO:G-COOH photocathode with a sol-gel-deposited TiO protecting layer and Au-Pd nanostructure, stable and efficient photocathode are developed for solar hydrogen generation.