Herein, we report the synthesis and photoelectrochemical characterizations of n-type Fe–V-oxide semiconductors thin film via drop cast method in different proportions onto indium tin oxide coated glass followed by annealing in air at 500 °C for 3 h.
In this study, we demonstrate development of p-Cu2O thin films through cathodic electrodeposition technique at constant current of 0.1 mA/cm(2) on Cu, Al, and indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates from basic CuSO4 solution containing Triton X-100 as the surfactant at 30-35 °C. The optical and morphological characterizations of the semiconductors have been carried out using UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Raman spectroscopy. The band gap energy of ∼2.1 eV is recorded, whereas SEM reveals that the surface morphology is covered with Cu2O semiconductors. XRD analyses confirm that with change in substrate, the size of Cu2O "cubic" crystallites decreases from ITO to Al to Cu substrates. Photoelectrochemical characterizations under dark and illuminated conditions have been carried out through linear sweep voltammetry, chronoamperometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic analysis. The photoelectrochemical reduction of water (H2O → H2) in pH 4.9 aqueous solutions over the different substrates vary in the order of Cu > Al > ITO. The highest current of 4.6 mA/cm(2) has been recorded over the Cu substrate even at a low illumination of 35 mW/cm(2), which is significantly higher than the values (2.4 mA/cm(2) on Au coated FTO or 4.07 mA/cm(2) on Cu foil substrate at an illumination of 100 mW/cm(2)) reported in literature.
We propose a simple way to increase incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE, Y) for electrodeposited p-type Cu 2 O films through addition of Eu(III) to the electrodeposition bath. This is the first reported enhancement of photocurrent for Cu 2 O modified with a rare-earth element. Our study is based on hypothesis that a large ionic radius of Eu(III) promotes its precipitation in form of inclusions of another phase, which act as getter centers leading to purification of host material from detrimental impurities and, correspondingly, to increase in lifetime of non-equilibrium charge carriers. SEM, EDX and XRD analyses indicate that addition of Eu (III) results in some increase of Cu 2 O crystallite size and growth of a secondary Eu containing phase without changing the Cu 2 O lattice parameters. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy indicates invariance of acceptor concentration and flat band potential for Eu modified films. Remarkable increase of charge carriers' lifetime,
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