Amorphous NiCu thin films sputtered on TiO2 nanotube arrays: a noble‐metal free photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution

Pinna M, Wo Weng Wei A, Spanu D, Will J, Yokosawa T, Spiecker E, Recchia S, Schmuki P, Altomare M (2022)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Journal

Original Authors: Marco Pinna, Angeline Wo Weng Wei, Davide Spanu, Johannes Will, Tadahiro Yokosawa, Erdmann Spiecker, Sandro Recchia, Patrik Schmuki, Marco Altomare

DOI: 10.1002/cctc.202201052

Abstract

In this work, NiCu co-catalysts on TiO2 are studied for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. NiCu co-catalyst films are deposited at room temperature by argon plasma sputtering on high aspect-ratio anodic TiO2 nanotubes. To tune the Ni : Cu atomic ratio, alloys of various compositions were used as sputtering targets. Such co-catalyst films are found to be amorphous with small nanocrystalline domains. A series of parameters is investigated, i. e., i) Ni : Cu relative ratio in the sputtered films, ii) NiCu film thickness, and iii) thickness of the TiO2 nanotube layers. The highest photocatalytic activity is obtained with 8 μm long TiO2 nanotubes, sputter-coated with a 10 nm-thick NiCu films with a 1 : 1 Ni : Cu atomic ratio. This photocatalyst reaches a stable hydrogen evolution rate of 186 μL h−1 cm−2, 4.6 and 3 times higher than that of Ni- and Cu-TiO2, respectively, demonstrating a synergistic co-catalytic effect of Ni and Cu in the alloy co-catalyst film.

Authors with CRIS profile

Additional Organisation(s)

Involved external institutions

University of Insubria / Università degli Studi dell'Insubria Italy (IT)

How to cite

APA:

Pinna, M., Wo Weng Wei, A., Spanu, D., Will, J., Yokosawa, T., Spiecker, E.,... Altomare, M. (2022). Amorphous NiCu thin films sputtered on TiO2 nanotube arrays: a noble‐metal free photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution. ChemCatChem. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cctc.202201052

MLA:

Pinna, Marco, et al. "Amorphous NiCu thin films sputtered on TiO2 nanotube arrays: a noble‐metal free photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution." ChemCatChem (2022).

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