Environment effects upon electrodeposition of thin film copper oxide nanomaterials

Autor: Mark A. Buckingham, Weichen Xiao, Brendan Ward-O’Brien, Kathryn Yearsley, Usama Zulfiqar, Ben F. Spencer, Allan Matthews, David J. Lewis
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Buckingham, M, Xiao, W, Ward-O'Brien, B, Yearsley, K, Zulfiqar, U, Spencer, B, Matthews, A & Lewis, D 2023, ' Environment effects upon electrodeposition of thin film copper oxide nanomaterials ', Journal of Materials Chemistry C, vol. 11, pp. 4876 . https://doi.org/10.1039/d2tc04662h
DOI: 10.1039/d2tc04662h
Popis: Copper(I) oxide (Cu2O) nanomaterials have become highly promising for photoelectrochemical reactionsas both solar absorber layers in p–n heterojunction solar cells, direct photoelectrocatalysis and as electrodes in the CO2 reduction reaction. Here we undertake a synthetic study towards the synthesis ofCu2O nanocubes by utilising electrodeposition from copper salts (chloride, acetate, nitrate, and sulphate)in different solution environments. We initially set out to investigate the effect of electrolyte concentration on the growth of Cu2O nanocubes. We also set out to mimic the high resistance inherent in thelow electrolyte concentration environment by altering the distance between the electrodes. This deposition method was found to enable control of nanocube size formation. Both mixed anion environmentsand mono-anion environments were also investigated in a low-electrolyte concentration system. Thefundamental physiochemical and electrochemical properties of each solution such as pH, conductivity,open circuit potential (VOCP), solution resistance (RS), and electron transfer resistance (RET) were measured.We then deposited copper oxide nanomaterials as thin films on ITO-coated glass substrates and assessedthe electrical (conductivity) and optical (UV-Vis and Eg) properties of these films. Finally, we set out toinvestigate if any possible correlations could be drawn between the physiochemical and electrochemicalproperties of the solution and the electronic and optical properties of the deposited Cu2O thin films
Databáze: OpenAIRE