Some characteristics of Cu/Cu2O/CuO nanostructure heterojunctions and their applications in hydrogen generation from seawater: effect of surface roughening

Cu/Cu2O/CuO heterojunction were synthesized, using thermal oxidation under the flow of argon and oxygen gas mixture, as efficient photoelectrode for hydrogen generation. The Cu/Cu2O/CuO heterojunction were synthesized using un-roughed and roughed Cu foils. The resulting heterojunction samples were characterized using various techniques. The evaluated oxide layer (Cu2O/CuO) thicknesses for un-roughed and roughed samples are 4.2 and 8.5 μm, respectively. XRD revealed that the oxide layer is a mix cubic Cu2O and monoclinic CuO crystalline phases with higher CuO ratio in the roughed sample. The surface morphology of the un-roughed sample is a porous surface that consisting of nanoflakes whereas surface morphology of the roughed sample is randomly oriented nanowires. The Cu/Cu2O/CuO nanostructured surface is superhydrophilic, with water contact angles of 11.12 and 0° for un-roughed and roughed samples, respectively. The roughed sample has higher absorbance over the entire studied wavelength range. The obtained values of the optical band gap for un-roughed and roughed samples are 2.48 and 2.39 eV, respectively. The photocurrent density of the roughed photoelectrode is much greater than that of un-roughed photoelectrode. The roughed photoelectrode has a photocurrent density of—0.151 mA cm−2 at—0.85 V and a photoconversion efficiency of 0.55% when illuminating with 340 nm light. This work offers a promised Cu/Cu2O/CuO photoelectrode for hydrogen generation from seawater.