Abstract
Photo-catalytic oxygen evolution from water oxidation is very important for solar energy utilization and fuel cell production. In this work, cuprous oxide film for photo-catalytic water oxidation and oxygen evolution under visible light was in-situ prepared on a copper foil with an anodization based method. The surface features of cuprous oxide film were characterized with X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The oxygen evolution capacity of as-obtained cuprous oxide film was evaluated with a water photolysis system, and an oxygen yield of 233.27μmol per milligram of cuprous oxide was achieved during 8h of illumination. During the reaction, water was oxidized by the photo-generated holes in cuprous oxide, and the copper/cuprous oxide heterojunction can effectively separate the photo-generated electron–hole pairs, which promote the catalytic activity of cuprous oxide film. The oxygen evolution reaction was driven by the bending of energy band of cuprous oxide caused by the semiconductor-metal contact. The remaining protons by the water oxidation resulted in the acidizing of water.
Published Version
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