Publication date: 22nd July 2026
The current social and energy context requires developing sustainable energy sources that mitigate pollution and diversify energy supplies. Since the solar radiation reaching Earth far exceeds humanity's energy needs, developing technologies to harness and use it efficiently is increasingly seen as an alternative to the current energy pool. One possible way is to produce solar fuels such as hydrogen, thus enabling the use and storage of solar energy. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is being widely investigated for such applications. CuBi₂O₄ is one material that shows promising characteristics for use as a photocathode. This multinary p-type metal oxide has a bandgap between 1.5 eV and 1.8 eV and an onset potential around 1 V vs. RHE [1, 2]. However, this oxide has limitations, namely poor charge-carrier transport and corrosion. It has also been observed that photoelectrochemical properties can vary significantly depending on morphology and interfacial structures [3].
To address these issues, in this work, we synthesized and characterized CuBi2O4-based electrodes with different synthetic routes: electrodeposition [3, 4] and chemical bath deposition [5]. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses confirm the presence of CuBi2O4 as the only crystalline phase, with similar thicknesses but different morphologies. PEC characterization under simulated solar irradiation showed that the different morphologies present different photoelectrochemical behaviour. To better understand how the different morphologies under study impact the charge transfer properties, an in-depth characterization by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), intensity-modulated photocurrent/voltage spectroscopy (IMPS, IMVS), and transient photocurrent spectroscopy (TPS) was performed.
This work highlights the importance of morphology in charge-transfer properties, paving the way for the development of higher-performance photocathodes.
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