Improved photostability of a CuO photoelectrode with Ni-doped seed layer

In this study, we examined the growth of copper oxide (CuO) photoelectrodes using nickel-doped copper oxide seed layers with various doping concentrations. We investigated the effects of the seed layer doped with various amounts of nickel on the morphological, structural, optical and photoelectrochemical properties of the CuO photoelectrode by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and potentiostat/galvanostat measurements, respectively. We found that doping the seed layer with nickel affects properties such as the surface roughness, surface area, crystallinity and photostability. As a result, we obtained a maximum photostability of 46.2% using a 10 at% nickel-doped seed layer.