Issue 26, 2018

Photocatalytic and electrically conductive transparent Cl-doped ZnO thin films via aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition

Abstract

A simple, economical and effective solution-based chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique, aerosol-assisted CVD, has been successfully applied to produce inexpensive Cl-doped ZnO films using Zn acetate dihydrate and FeCl3. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the increase in cell parameters from powder X-ray diffraction determined that Cl had been doped into the wurtzite ZnO lattice. The Cl-doping had a significant effect on the morphology of the thin films synthesised and resulted in an improvement in the visible light transmission and lower electrical resistance (typical resistivities of doped films ∼10−2 Ω cm). The highest transmittance (% T) of 85% was obtained when 7 mol% FeCl3 was used in the precursor solution and the lowest resistivity of 4.28 ± 0.41 × 10−2 Ω cm was obtained with 5 mol% FeCl3. The greatest photocatalytic activity of stearic acid degradation under UVA irradiation was obtained on using 10 mol% FeCl3, resulting in the highest formal quantum efficiency (FQE) of 3.0 ± 0.1 × 10−4 molecule per photon. These films, therefore, display transparent conducting oxide and photocatalytic properties, giving multifunctional characteristics and promising applications.

Graphical abstract: Photocatalytic and electrically conductive transparent Cl-doped ZnO thin films via aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Febr. 2018
Accepted
11 Jūn. 2018
First published
12 Jūn. 2018
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018,6, 12682-12692

Photocatalytic and electrically conductive transparent Cl-doped ZnO thin films via aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition

A. Jiamprasertboon, M. J. Powell, S. C. Dixon, R. Quesada-Cabrera, Abdullah M. Alotaibi, Y. Lu, A. Zhuang, S. Sathasivam, T. Siritanon, I. P. Parkin and C. J. Carmalt, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018, 6, 12682 DOI: 10.1039/C8TA01420E

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