Directing the Architecture of Cuprous Oxide Crystals during Electrochemical Growth

Abstract

A basic crystal shape is determined by habit formation and branching growth. Control of these processes leads to an enormous degree of synthetic freedom in generating crystal shapes. The vast array of architectures obtained for cuprous oxide during electrochemical growth is shown. For more details see the Communication by K.-S. Choi and M. J. Siegfried on the following pages. 3218

Electrochemical Fabrication of Copper-Based Hybrid Microstructures and Mechanism of Formation of Related Hierarchical Structures on Polypyrrole Films

“…The shapes of these microcrystals are also in agreement with those observed for the electrochemical deposition of Cu 2 O. 22 In particular, the deposit formed at À0.10 V vs SCE has the shape of cubic truncated pyramids, which is characteristic of Cu 2 O crystals in the case of similar growth rates along the AE100ae and AE111ae directions. 44,45 The electrodeposition of Cu 2 O materials has been receiving much attention in the past few years because of their application, for example, in homo-and heterojunction solar cells.…”

“…These studies are important in order to enable any correlation of crystal shape with chemical and physical properties to be determined. Parameters that have been investigated which alter the shape of the Cu 2 O crystal formed include surfactant molecule additives, 21 potential/current applied, 22 pH, 23 and the application of a magnetic field. 24,25 In this paper we show that by altering the electrode potential one can control the shape of Cu 2 O microcrystals deposited on a conducting polymer.…”

Synthesis and Characterization of High-Photoactivity Electrodeposited Cu2O Solar Absorber by Photoelectrochemistry and Ultrafast Spectroscopy

“…Also, for a given crystallographic orientation, different exposed facets can be obtained by the addition to the plating bath of species that selectively adsorb on the growing crystal facets. 29,42 The crystallographic orientation is relevant to charge transport and collection, while the exposed facets determine the photocatalytic activity of the films. The black line in Figure 2b shows the ratio between the intensity of the (111) reflection and the sum of the intensities of (111) and (200) reflections for a polycrystalline Cu 2 O powder obtained from JCPDS Card No.…”

Epitaxial Electrodeposition of Chiral Films Using Chiral Precursors

“…Siegfried and Choi have examined the stability of facets of Cu2O in the presence of additives where ammonium salts stabilize {111} planes, whereas sodium chloride stabilizes {100} planes. [61] Thin films of metals and metal oxides can be electrodeposited on polycrystalline substrates or single crystalline substrates. Polycrystalline films grow on polycrystalline substrate and are usually used for identification and characterization.…”