The Construction of p/n-Cu2O Heterojunction Catalysts for Efficient CO2 Photoelectric Reduction

Cu2O is a p-type direct bandgap semiconductor with band gap of 2~2.2 eV, which has excellent visible light absorption and utilization. However, slow charge transfer poor stability hinder its practical application. In this paper, facile electrodeposition approach successfully synthesized the heterostructure p-Cu2O n-Cu2O. The protective layer n-Cu2O on surface nanoparticles forms p/n heterojunction. Due to heterojunction, PEC performance p/n-Cu2O enhanced significantly. separation efficiency photogenerated electron/hole pairs in greatly improved. Therefore, shows superior photoelectrochemical (PEC) CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) when used as photocathode.