Scalable and inexpensive strategy to fabricate CuO/ZnO nanowire heterojunction for efficient photoinduced water splitting

In this paper, highly efficient and stable CuO/ZnO nanowire (CuO/ZnO-nw) based photocathode was fabricated using a facile and scalable technique for application in photoelectrochemical water splitting. Electro-deposition of Cu film on FTO glass followed by a subsequent chemical oxidation and dip-coa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of materials science 2018-02, Vol.53 (4), p.2725-2734
Main Authors: Tsege, Ermias Libnedengel, Cho, Soo Kyung, Tufa, Lemma Teshome, Tran, Van Tan, Lee, Jaebeom, Kim, Hyung-Kook, Hwang, Yoon-Hwae
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Charge transfer
Chemistry and Materials Science
Classical Mechanics
Coatings
Copper
Copper oxides
Crystallography and Scattering Methods
Dip coatings
Electromagnetic absorption
Energy Materials
Heterojunctions
Heterostructures
Immersion coating
Materials Science
Nanoparticles
Nanowires
Organic chemistry
Oxidation
Photocathodes
Photoelectric effect
Photoelectric emission
Photovoltaic cells
Polymer Sciences
Protective coatings
Solid Mechanics
Water splitting
Zinc oxide
Zinc oxides
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this paper, highly efficient and stable CuO/ZnO nanowire (CuO/ZnO-nw) based photocathode was fabricated using a facile and scalable technique for application in photoelectrochemical water splitting. Electro-deposition of Cu film on FTO glass followed by a subsequent chemical oxidation and dip-coating methods was implemented to fabricate a p -type CuO/ZnO-nw heterostructure photoelectrode. The as-prepared CuO/ZnO-nw heterostructure consisted of a copper (II) oxide (CuO) nanowire covered by zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticle film serving as both protecting and charge transfer layer. We optimized the coating concentration and the number of layers to achieve enhanced p -type CuO/ZnO-nw photoelectrode material. The best photocathode material exhibited a maximum current of − 8.1 mAcm −2 at 0 versus RHE. The obtained photocurrent density was outstanding compared to other reported CuO-based heterostructure photoelectrodes. The enhancement in photocurrent performance originated from the combined effect of charge separation and the light absorption properties of the heterostructure photoelectrode. The result demonstrated a simple and scalable approach for the fabrication of enhanced CuO nanowire-based photoelectrode for the production of H 2 using solar light.
ISSN:0022-2461
1573-4803
DOI:10.1007/s10853-017-1711-4