Correlation between Deposition Parameters and Hydrogen Production in CuO Nanostructured Thin Films
- 3 February 2016
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Langmuir
- Vol. 32 (6), 1510-1520
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b03917
Abstract
In this paper is reported a systematic investigation of the role of: i) substrate temperature, ii) oxygen partial pressure, and iii) RF-power on the crystal structure and morphology of CuO nanostructured thin films prepared by means of RF-magnetron sputtering starting from a Cu metal target. On selected films photocatalytic tests have been carried out in order to correlate the structural and morphological properties of the thin films prepared under different conditions with the photocatalytic properties and to find out the key parameters to optimize the CuO nanostructured films. All the synthesized films resulted to be single phase CuO nanorods of variable diameter between 80 and 200 nm. Better aligned rods were obtained at relatively low substrate temperatures and from low to intermediate oxygen partial pressures, resulting in more efficient photocatalytic activities. Our investigation suggests a relevant role of the crystallographic orientation of the CuO tenorite film on the photocatalytic activity, as demonstrated by the significant improvement in the H2 evolution for highly oriented films.Keywords
Funding Information
- Regione Lombardia
- Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali
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