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The process of carbon dioxide (CO 2) reduction by using efficient non-precious-metal catalyst to make the process be economical has brought a comprehensive research in the area. In this study, graphene layer in copper foil was easily synthesized using hydrothermal method at temperature 200°C in 3 h duration. Diffraction peaks in XRD at around 29°, 36°, 42° and 74° in the composites correlate to the (110), (111), (200) and (311) crystalline planes of cubic cuprous oxide (Cu 2 O), while peak at 27° showed the carbon graphitic peak. Raman confirms the presence of the graphene layer on Cu 2 O. Photoelectrochemical performance test of Graphene/Cu 2 O demonstrated that the photoelectrocatalyst showing the photocurrent density 9.6 mA cm-2 at-0.8V vs Ag/AgCl. This study demonstrated a potential of semiconductor-based hybrid electrode for an efficient photoelectrocatalytic of CO 2 reduction.

Cu 2 O photocathode such as nanowire (NW) have shown to improve photoactivity than that nanoparticle thin film counterpart. This enhancement is attributed to enhanced photocatalytic reaction due to increase in surface active area and effective radial charge diffusion. However, the photoelectrochemical performance of reported work were rather low which need an improvement prior protection. In this study, Cu 2 O nanowire photocathode was fabricated using sequential wet chemical oxidation method and annealing under inert condition. Focusing on annealing step, the transformation of precursor Cu(OH) 2 nanowire to Cu 2 O nanowire undergone multistep annealing with a different ramping rate under inert condition. The highest photocurrent was then compared with photocurrent generated from Cu 2 O NW prepared with direct annealing strategy. With multistep annealing, the best photoelectrochemical performance was obtained from Cu 2 O NW prepared at the highest ramping rate which is 1.2 folds better than that obtained with single step annealing. The photocurrent enhancement obtained in this study was attributed to favourable morphology improving light trapping. Overall, the ampleness of material source, non-toxic, simple fabrication and excellent photocatalytic performance are the prerequisite to realize solar hydrogen production.

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