Novel Nanoarchitectured Cu(2)Te as a Photocathodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Applications

Designing photocathodes with nanostructures has been considered a promising way to improve the photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting activity. Cu(2)Te is one of the promising semiconducting materials for photoelectrochemical water splitting, the performance of Cu(2)Te photocathodes remains poor. In this work, we report the preparation of Cu(2)Te nanorods (NRs) and vertical nanosheets (NSs) assembled film on Cu foil through a vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) technique. The obtained nano architectures as photocathodes toward photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance was tested afterwards for the first time. Optimized Cu(2)Te NRs and NSs photocathodes showed significant photocurrent density up to 0.53 mA cm(−2) and excellent stability under illumination. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and Mott–Schottky analysis were used to analyze in more detail the performance of Cu(2)Te NRs and NSs photocathodes. From these analyses, we propose that Cu(2)Te NRs and NSs photocathodes are potential candidate materials for use in solar water splitting.