Photoelectrochemical characteristics of CuO films with different electrodeposition time

Abstract This paper explores the effect of electrodeposition time on microstructure, optical, and photoelectrochemical properties of CuO films. CuO films were electrochemically deposited on tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) substrates using a Cu2O electrodeposition method followed by annealing at 550 °C for 2 h. The electrochemical deposition was carried out at different times (300, 600, 1200, and 1800 s) utilizing a copper sulfate pentahydrate and lactic acid solution. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were used to perform phase and microstructure analysis. Photoluminescence (PL) studies confirmed an increase in emission intensities with increasing deposition time. In addition, a significant change was observed in photoelectrochemical properties of the film by varying the deposition time. The film deposited for 600 s showed a high photocurrent density of −0.55 mA cm−2 at −0.5 V. Moreover, a lowest resistance from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was recorded for the films electrochemically deposited for 600 s.