Multi-Functional Copper Oxide Nanosystems for H2 Sustainable Production and Sensing

This work focuses on the use of tailored copper oxide nanoarchitectures as multi-functional materials for the sustainable production of hydrogen and its on-line detection. An innovative copper(II) precursor, Cu(hfa)2.TMEDA, was adopted in the CVD of CuxO (x=1,2) nanosystems under both O2 and O2+H2O atmospheres on Si(100) and Al2O3 substrates. A multi-technique characterization indicates that both the phase composition (from Cu2O to CuO) and morphology (from continuous films to entangled quasi-1D nanosystems) can be tailored by varying the growth temperature and reaction atmosphere. The obtained CuxO nanodeposits are active in the photocatalytic H2 production from aqueous solutions under UV-Vis irradiation and display interesting gas sensing performances towards hydrogen detection even at moderate temperatures.