Efficient Process of ALD CuO and Its Application in Photocatalytic H2 Evolution

As a cost-effective material, CuO has been widely used in many emerging fields. The synthesis method plays a key role in the performance of the material. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been developed as a precise technique to deposit materials with great control at atomic scale. Herein, an efficient process of ALD CuO is reported by using [Cu( s Bu-amd)] 2 and O 3 as precursors. CuO films can be deposited on SiO 2 substrates with typical self-limiting growth behaviors at 120–220°C. Notably, the growth rate of the CuO films is reach up to 2.5 Å/cycle, which is 6~12 times more than the available value. This remarkably high efficiency is the critical factor to promote the large-scale applications of ALD CuO materials. Furthermore, CuO is deposited on TiO 2 nano-particles (forming CuO/TiO 2 composite) using this ALD process to evaluate its performance for H 2 evolution. The 0.37 wt % CuO/TiO 2 composite (120 cycles CuO/TiO 2 ) can achieve a H 2 evolution rate of 3995 μmol g –1 h –1 , which is nearly 200 times larger than pure TiO 2 .