XPS investigation of CuxO-functionalized amorphous carbon nitride

In this work, we report the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization of a novel nanocomposite (photo)electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction, based on amorphous carbon nitride (aCN) functionalized with CuxO nanoparticles (NPs). The specimen has been fabricated employing two sequential plasma-assisted processes, involving the initial aCN deposition onto conductive glass via magnetron sputtering, followed by carbon nitride functionalization with CuxO (x = 1, 2) NPs by radio frequency-sputtering. The results reported herein include the survey spectrum and the high-resolution C 1s, N 1s, O 1s, Cu 2p, and Cu LMM signals. The most significant spectral features are analyzed and critically discussed.