Chang Ting-Kai, Huang Yan-Syun, Chen Hsin-Yu, Liao Chien-Neng
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu30013, Taiwan, ROC.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Nov 2;14(43):48540-48546. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c10448. Epub 2022 Oct 7.
Cuprous oxide (CuO) films are electrodeposited on fluorinated tin oxide (FTO) substrates with controlled crystallographic orientation and optimized film thickness. The CuO films exhibit a (100)-to-(111) texture change and a pyramid-to-cuboidal crystallite morphology transformation by increasing the electrodeposition current density. The cuboidal crystallites enclosed by (100) sidewalls and (111) truncated surfaces demonstrate better photoelectrochemical property than the pyramid crystallites. By introducing a copper(I) telluride (CuTe) layer in between CuO and FTO, the photocurrent density increases 70% for the (111)-textured CuO film in a 1 M NaSO solution under AM1.5 G illumination. The enhancement is mainly attributed to the improved separation of photocarriers in the illuminated CuO film by pumping hole carriers to the CuTe layer. In contrast to typical electron pathway management, this study provides an alternative route to improve the photoelectrochemical performance of CuO-based photocathodes through hole pathway modification.
在具有可控晶体取向和优化膜厚的氟化锡氧化物（FTO）衬底上，通过电沉积法制备了氧化亚铜（CuO）薄膜。通过增加电沉积电流密度，CuO薄膜呈现出从（100）到（111）的织构变化以及从金字塔形到立方形微晶形态的转变。由（100）侧壁和（111）截断表面包围的立方形微晶表现出比金字塔形微晶更好的光电化学性能。通过在CuO和FTO之间引入一层碲化亚铜（CuTe），在AM1.5 G光照下，1 M NaSO溶液中（111）织构的CuO薄膜的光电流密度增加了70%。这种增强主要归因于通过将空穴载流子泵入CuTe层，改善了光照下CuO薄膜中光生载流子的分离。与典型的电子路径管理不同，本研究提供了一条通过空穴路径修饰来提高基于CuO的光阴极光电化学性能的替代途径。
