Production of thin copper oxide films and its electronic density

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to determine the mechanism for the formation of copper(II) oxide in a neutral medium under conditions of polarization of the copper electrode with alternating current to obtain a copper oxide powder of the desired dispersion. The anodic behavior of copper was investigated in potassium sulfate solutions. As a result of the research, the mechanism of electro-oxidation-reduction of copper was established and it was shown that the potential scan rate and the electrolyte temperature had an effective impact on the ionization process of copper. The results of potentiodynamic studies were used to obtain copper(II) oxide by alternating current electrolysis. Electrolysis was performed using titanium wire and plate copper electrodes. The resulting copper oxide was investigated by X-ray phase analysis. As a result of the research, a mathematical model of copper(II) oxide current efficiency was obtained. This result is compared with the electron density of copper oxide calculated on the basis of the solution of the Schrodinger equation, which was considered in our earlier published papers. The use of copper oxide as a photocell is associated with its chemical properties. The efficiency of a copper oxide-based photocell is directly dependent on the quality of the maintenance of the structural units, including impurities. By the method described in this work, copper oxide was obtained with 62% copper and 32% oxygen. The resulting copper oxide allows it to be used as a photocell with a higher efficiency. This paper describes a method of producing copper oxide in its pure form, suitable for widespread use in industry, which would increase the production of photovoltaic cells based on copper oxide to the required volumes. The ratio of the structural units of a thin copper oxide film obtained in the microelement analysis and the calculated electronic density in the reciprocal space are 0.5.