Preparation and photoelectrochemical performance of TiO2/HS-CH2-COOH/Cu3Se2 composite film

In this paper, the TiO2/HS-CH2-COOH/Cu3Se2 composite film photoanodes were fabricated on conducting glass plates. Cu3Se2 nanoparticles were used as the sensitizer and the bi-functional modifier HS-CH2-COOH was used at the interface between Cu3Se2 and TiO2 films to improve the properties of the film photoanode. The characterization results show that the sol-gel prepared anatase TiO2 film has a compact and uniform surface, while the tetragonal Cu3Se2 film has a coarse surface which is made up of uniform elongated particles. The photoelectrochemical experimental results indicate that the TiO2/HS-CH2-COOH/Cu3Se2 composite film photoanodes have a good photovoltaic property.