Novel Nanoarchitectured Cu2Te as a Photocathodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Applications

Abstract

Designing photocathodes with nanostructures has been considered a promising way to improve the photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting activity. Cu₂Te is one of the promising semiconducting materials for photoelectrochemical water splitting, the performance of Cu₂Te photocathodes remains poor. In this work, we report the preparation of Cu₂Te nanorods (NRs) and vertical nanosheets (NSs) assembled film on Cu foil through a vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) technique. The obtained nano architectures as photocathodes toward photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance was tested afterwards for the first time. Optimized Cu₂Te NRs and NSs photocathodes showed significant photocurrent density up to 0.53 mA cm^-2 and excellent stability under illumination. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and Mott-Schottky analysis were used to analyze in more detail the performance of Cu₂Te NRs and NSs photocathodes. From these analyses, we propose that Cu₂Te NRs and NSs photocathodes are potential candidate materials for use in solar water splitting.

Keywords: PEC water splitting; copper telluride; nanorods; nanosheets; photocathodes.