Copper oxide photocathodes prepared by a solution based process

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• 作者：Chia-Ying Chiang ; Yoon Shin ; Kosi Aroh ; Sheryl Ehrman ; ^{sehrman@umd.edu}
• 关键词：Hydrogen energy ; Photoelectrochemical cell ; Copper oxide ; Water splitting
• 刊名：International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：42_03603199
• 类别：ch
• 出版时间：May, 2012
• 卷：37
• 期：10
• 页码：8232-8239
• 文件大小：1199 K

摘要

Solution based processes are well known by their low-cost trait to fabricate semiconductor devices. In this study, we devised an economical solution based route to photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells, taking copper nitrate as the copper ion source and adding an alkali hydroxide, here NaOH, to produce high aspect ratio (3.1-9.7) CuO nanoparticles. These CuO particles were used for splitting water and generation of hydrogen via a PEC cell. CuO nanoparticle morphology, i.e. rod-like, spindle-like, and needle-like, was dependent on the processing temperature. Sintering the spin coated CuO films, improved crystallinity. The bandgaps for these films were estimated to be 1.35聽eV and 1.64聽eV for sintering temperatures of 600聽掳C and 400聽掳C for 1聽h, respectively. The porous structure of the nano-sized CuO films increased surface area and thus led to a high photocurrent, i.e. 1.20聽mA/cm², for powder prepared at 60聽掳C and sintered at 600聽掳C for 1聽h. These films demonstrated 0.91%solar conversion efficiency at an applied voltage of 鈭?.55聽V vs. Ag/AgCl in 1聽M KOH electrolyte with 1 sun (AM1.5G) illumination. The charge carrier density was estimated to be 6.1聽脳聽10²⁰聽cm^鈭?. This relatively high charge carrier density may be due to the high surface area and short transport distance to the electrode/electrolyte interface in the porous nanostructure.