Decorating Cu₂O photocathode with cu/Al bimetallic layer for enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting

Abstract

Summary In this work, we reported a reasonable, simple, and low cost strategy that Cu 2 O is decorated with Cu layer and Al layer to realize the improvement of photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance. The results indicate that the Cu/Al layer that has surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect inherits both properties of which Cu has high conductivity and Al could form thin Al 2 O 3 layer to hinder Fermi‐level pinning to accelerate the transfer of photoinduced electron‐hole pairs. With the synergistic effect of Cu and Al, Cu/Al/Cu 2 O photocathode displays a higher photocurrent density (−2.16 mA/cm 2 at 0 V vs RHE), which is 3.7 times as high as the pure Cu 2 O. Thus, loading bimetallic is believed to be an effective strategy and could inspire interest in continuing to explore novel and effective bimetallic catalysts for PEC water splitting.