Construction of light-sensitive CuO/FeO heterostructures to promote photocatalytic CO reduction and photo-assisted charge storage

• Published in: Sustainable energy & fuels 2024-10, Vol.8 (21), p.4992-5
• Main Authors: Lv, Xiankui, Yang, Hongran, Meng, Weiting, Arif, Muhammad, Feng, Xiaobo, Zhang, Weibin, Zhu, Ting
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 2398-4902
• DOI: 10.1039/d4se01038h

Designing high-performance bifunctional materials for photo-assisted electrochemical charge storage and photocatalysis is challenging due to the difficulty in balancing electroactivity and photo-to-electric efficiency. Herein, copper foam (CF) supported three-dimensional nanoarrays (3D NAs) composed of copper oxide/iron oxide (Cu 2 O/Fe 2 O 3 ) heterostructures were constructed as bifunctional materials for the photocatalytic CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) and photo-assisted supercapacitors. These Cu 2 O/Fe 2 O 3 3D NAs have demonstrated high electroactivity and good light adsorption with high photocurrent responses. As a result, the optimized Cu 2 O/Fe 2 O 3 photocatalyst delivered a high methane (CH 4 ) production rate of 38.6 μmol h −1 g −1 with good cycling stability for the CO 2 RR. When used for photo-assisted supercapacitors, the optimized Cu 2 O/Fe 2 O 3 photoelectrode exhibited a maximum photo-capacitance of 595 F g −1 , delivering an enhancement of 17.3% over the capacitance obtained without light (507 F g −1 ). This work provides a unique approach to utilizing light energy directly to promote electrochemical and photocatalytic properties. Heterostructures composed of Cu 2 O/Fe 2 O 3 3D NAs were prepared to promote performances in photo-assisted supercapacitors and the photocatalytic CO 2 RR.