Facile synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles on carol-like Cu2O nanowires for photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation

A simple chemical route is utilized to decorate ZnO nanoparticles (NP) on the coral-like Cu2O nanowires (NW) surface as a p-n heterojunction photocathode for photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen production. The SEM and TEM results confirm the morphology and structure of coral-like Cu2O NW/ZnO NP nanocomposite; meanwhile, the EDS and XPS results display the chemical binding and composition of Cu2O and ZnO materials. Electrochemical impedance measurements demonstrate that the coral-like Cu2O NW/ZnO NP achieves fast charge transfer. Notably, the p-Cu2O NW/n-ZnO NP photocathode can achieve the highest photocurrent of −3.4 mAcm−2 and its IPCE values significantly show the 1.5-fold enhancement compared to pristine p-Cu2O NW, ascribing the efficient separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and greater PEC activity.