Photoelectrochemical effect of Cu_(2)O on the corrosion behavior of Cu in sodium sulfate solution

The electrochemical associated with photoelectrochemical behaviors of Cu electrodeposited with Cu_(2)O layer were investigated in this work.The corrosion of Cu was promoted due to the enhanced anodic and cathodic processes under AM 1.5illumination compared with that in the darkness,especially for the anodic process.The photoinduced corrosion of Cu by Cu_(2)O was detected by Scanning Vibrating Electro Technique(SVET).The effect of Cu_(2)O on the promotion of Cu corrosion under illumination can be as-cribed to the narrowed depletion layer in Cu_(2)O under illumination,which facilitates the separation of hole-electron pairs.The resultant holes give rise to the oxidation of the Cu matrix and lead to a pro-moted corrosion consequently.Besides,a method for in-situ determining the photoinduced current of a semiconductor material is proposed.