Preparation of submicron-sized cuprous oxide crystallites by electrodeposition with polyethylene glycol as additive

Abstract Submicron-sized cuprous oxide crystallites was prepared by electrodeposition, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) was introduced to improve the dispersity of crystallites. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) were applied to characterize its crystal structure and morphology. Based on the analysis, it was found that PEG can affect the growth mode of cuprous oxide crystallites, which improves of the dispersity of the crystallites. The growth of cuprous oxide crystallites without PEG presents obvious aggregation dominant, while diffusion becomes the dominant mechanism when PEG is introduced into the electrolyte. The photo transmission character of cuprous oxide crystallites was measured by UV–vis spectrophotometer, and the calculated band gap energy of which is approximately 2.17 eV. The photoelectrochemical property of the crystallites was also characterized with the current–potential responses to a linear potentiodynamic scan under chopped illumination, and it is found that the photocurrent of the cuprous oxide crystallites electrodeposited with PEG is obviously larger than the one without PEG.