Abstract
This work studies the preparation of M-PbS (M = Li, Na, or Cs) on porous CuO (P-CuO) as a photoelectrode for H-2 gas production under sewage water splitting. The preparation of P-CuO was carried out in our previous study (Abdelazeez et al in Appl Phys 128:1-10, 2022). The preparation of M-PbS is performed using the hydrothermal method, and then it is cast on P-CuO and dried at 70 degrees C for 30 min. The chemical structure of M-PbS materials was confirmed through XRD and XPS analyses. Moreover, the morphologies were confirmed using SEM and TEM analyses. These analyses confirmed the formation of quantum dot particles that sometimes agglomerate to form nanoparticles that look like flower shapes. The calculated bandgap values are 1.03, 1.05, 1.06, and 1.07 eV for Cs-PbS, Na-PbS, PbS, and Li-PbS, respectively. The application for the H-2 generation test is carried out using three-electrode cells with sewage water (pH 7.2) as an electrolyte without using any extra electrolytes. The effect of light on/off was studied, and the produced current density (J(ph)) values were - 1.3 and - 3.42 mA cm(- 2), respectively. The effect of temperature (25 to 40 degrees C) is demonstrated by testing the produced J(ph), which increased with increasing temperature from 3.06 to 3.48 mA cm(- 2), respectively. The calculated thermodynamic parameters were calculated in which the produced Ea, Delta H*, and Delta S* values were 6.55 KJ mol(- 1), 4.02 kJ mol(- 1), and 221 JK(- 1) mol(- 1), respectively. Soon our team works on developing a prototype of an electrochemical cell that can convert the sewage water into H-2 gas fuel directly for applying inside houses for cooking and worming.