In-Depth Study of Chemically Electrodeposited Cuprous Oxide (Cu₂O) thin Films on ITO Glass

In this contribution, we report the screening of different parameters contributing to the electrodeposition of Cu₂O nanostructures as an electrode material to provide an overall understanding of the effect of the entire method conditions. We varied different parameters (pH, potential, and deposition time) during the electrodeposition of cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) thin films on ITO glass substrate and integrated different methods: X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis absorption (UV-Vis), scanning electron microscope (SEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and chronoamperometry (CA) to deeply examine the as-synthesized materials and interrogate their efficiency towards the conversion of light to current (photo-current). From the chronoamperometry experiments, all the curves of current transients exhibit a typical response of a progressive 3D nucleation growth. Highly crystalline Cu₂O structures of nano-cubes can be seen in the XRD and SEM results at high pH (12.5) and at potentials -0.5 and -0.6 V Vs. SCE during 60 min of deposition time. UV-Vis results showed high optical absorption in the region of 300-500 nm. The photocurrent measurements of Cu₂O coupled with Cu-doped ZnO suggested that the synthesized Cu₂O proved to be the best candidate as a solar cell.