High-quality Cu 2 O thin films via electrochemical synthesis under a variable applied potential

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High‑quality ­Cu2O thin films via electrochemical synthesis under a variable applied potential A. Ait Hssi1   · L. Atourki2 · N. Labchir1 · M. Ouafi3 · K. Abouabassi1 · A. Elfanaoui1 · A. Ihlal1 · S. Benmokhtar4 · K. Bouabid1 Received: 29 November 2019 / Accepted: 21 January 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract In this work, highly C ­ u2O film purity have been synthesized via electrodeposition technique by means of a variable applied potential [cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and − 0.5 V]. This paper highlights the effect of using variable potential approaches during the film preparation on the properties of ­Cu2O-deposited films. The prepared films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, UV–Vis absorption and photoelectrochemical (PEC) analysis. XRD revealed that samples are crystallized in ­Cu2O cubic structure with a crystalline orientation in the plane (111) and a clear improvement of the crystallinity and size crystallite of the ­Cu2O deposited using CV process. SEM micrographs showed that the morphology grains were three-sided pyramid-shaped, expanding with increase of the crystallinity. The calculated band gap values are 2.18, 2.23 and 2.20 eV, respectively for − 0.5 V, LSV, CV. The C ­ u2O films synthetized in this study showed high PEC activity with very low carrier density in comparison with the conventionally electrodeposited films.

1 Introduction In recent years, semiconductors have attracted the attention of researchers because of their extensive applications in the many fields. Among it, cuprous oxide thin films are widely used due to their excellent p-type semiconducting properties such as a higher absorption coefficient in visible region and a direct energy band gap of 1.9–2.2 eV [1, 2]. These characteristics make it a good candidate for solar cell applications [3-5], gas sensing [6], thin-film transistors [7], photocatalysis [8]. ­Cu2O thin films can be deposited using a variety of techniques such as sol–gel [9], sputtering [10, 11], successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction [12], thermal oxidation [13], spray pyrolysis [14] and electrodeposition * A. Ait Hssi [email protected] 1



Materials and Renewable Energy Laboratory, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco

2



MANAPSE, Faculty of Science, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Rabat, Morocco

3

LCS, Faculty of Science, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco

4

Laboratory of Chemistry Physics of Materials, Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco



[15–18]. Among the various deposition techniques, the electrodeposition is one of the simplest techniques due to low-cost and environmentally benign approach, it is having several advantages such as low temperature and ambient pressure processing, it allows to control the crystallization, the morphology and the thickness of the thin films [17]. Several studies reported on the tailoring the morphology, the crystal structure and thickness of the films by adjusting of p