Preparation of flower-like Cu2O nanoparticles by pulse electrodeposition and their electrocatalytic application

A pulsed electrodeposition technique based on a multipulse sequence of potentials of equal amplitude, duration and polarity was employed for preparation of highly dispersed flower-like cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) nanoparticles. The morphology analysis of the particles using scanning electron microscope (SEM) reveals that the flower-like particles were from sequential growth of Cu₂O along the (1 1 1) direction on the cubic Cu₂O (1 0 0). The structure and the chemical composition of the deposits were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Optical property and band gap of the Cu₂O was investigated using UV/vis diffuse reflection spectra (DRS), and the measured value of energy gap is 2.18 eV. The dark and light open circuit potential-time characterization study showed that the flower-like Cu₂O nanoparticles exhibited good photoelectric response. Cyclic voltammetry carried out in the presence of p-nitrophenol (p-NP) shows that the electrocatalytic performance of the Cu₂O particles for the reduction of p-NP, which was characterized by a cathodic peak at around −0.6 V. The influence of the incidence of light on the electrocatalysis is also discussed.