CuWO4 films grown via seeding-hydrothermal method for photoelectrochemical water oxidation

Hydrothermal method is widely used to fabricate metal oxide films with various morphology. CuWO4 is promising photoanode material for photoelectrochemical conversion of light into chemical fuels. In this report, we report that CuWO4 films on FTO substrate are hydrothermally synthesized by introducing a seeding layer without which only mixed phases of CuO and WO3 are obtained under the moderate temperature (180 °C) reaction conditions. Photoelectrochemical measurements show that the photoactivity of the CuWO4 is dependent on the concentration of the hydrothermal solution. Tuning the composition of reaction solution into W-rich resulted WO3-CuWO4 composite film which exhibits much improved photoelectrochemical performance due to enhanced charge separation.