Novel Nanoarchitectured Cu2Te as a Photocathodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Applications

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.

Automated summary

This study presents the fabrication of Cu2Te nanorods and vertical nanosheets assembled films on Cu foil using vapor phase epitaxy. The photoelectrochemical performance of the obtained nanostructures as photocathodes was tested for the first time. The optimized Cu2Te nanorods and nanosheets photocathodes exhibited significant photocurrent density and excellent stability.