Experimental investigation of various copper oxide electrodeposition conditions on photoelectrochemical hydrogen production

In this study, an experimental investigation of photosensitive material copper oxide electrodeposition on various substances is performed under different experimental conditions in order to evaluate the effects on photoelectrochemical hydrogen production system. The experimental setup consists of solar simulator, electrodeposition chemicals, hydrogen sensor, pH meter, graphite and platinum electrodes, heating plate, stirrer, temperature sensors, cathode and anode plates, concentrating lens and potentiostat. The overall aim is to optimize the efficiencies by generating higher currents and eventually hydrogen as light enhances the separation of water process. The results obtained in this study are promising for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production under the solar simulator and concentrated light irradiation conditions. Furthermore, an electrolysis setup using the coated metals and graphite rod is built to investigate the amount of photocurrent production. The characterization is also conducted under light and no-light conditions, where the amount of produced current and hydrogen increased in light compared to no-light condition. At the applied voltage of −0.6 V and −0.4 V vs. Ag/AgCl, the photocurrent densities of 0.8 mA/cm2 and 0.27 mA/cm2 are obtained with a solar conversion efficiency of 0.86% and 0.24%, respectively.