Journal
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY
Volume 22, Issue 23, Pages 11739-11747Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c2jm31589k
Keywords
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Funding
- European Community [ENHANCE-238409]
- ERC [246791-COUNTATOMS]
- Regione Lombardia-INSTM PICASSO
- Fondazione CRTrieste
- Fondazione Benefica Kathleen Foreman Casali
- Padova University PRAT [CPDA102579]
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1D CuO/ZnO nanocomposites were grown on Si(100) substrates by means of an original two-step synthetic strategy. ZnO nanorod (NR) arrays were initially deposited by plasma enhanced-chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD) from an Ar-O-2 atmosphere. Subsequently, tailored amounts of CuO were dispersed over zinc oxide matrices by radio frequency (RF)-sputtering of Cu from Ar plasmas, followed by thermal treatment in air. A thorough characterization of the obtained systems was carried out by X-ray photoelectron and X-ray excited-Auger electron spectroscopies (XPS and XE-AES), glancing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electron diffraction (ED) and energy filtered-TEM (EF-TEM). Pure and highly oriented CuO/ZnO NR arrays, free from ternary Zn-Cu-O phases and characterized by a copper(II) oxide content controllable as a function of the adopted RF-power, were successfully obtained. Interestingly, the structural relationships between the two oxides at the CuO/ZnO interface were found to depend on the overall CuO loading. The obtained nanocomposites displayed promising photocatalytic performances in H-2 production by reforming of ethanol-water solutions under simulated solar illumination, paving the way to the sustainable conversion of solar light into chemical energy.
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