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Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Mg0.05Zn0.95O thin films prepared by sol–gel method through a cycle

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Abstract

Mg0.05Zn0.95O thin films were prepared on silicon substrates by a sol–gel dip-coating technique. Microstructure, surface topography and optical properties of the thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, atom force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer and fluorescence spectrometer. The results show that the thin film annealed at 700 °C has the largest average grain size and exhibits the best c-axis preferred orientation. As annealing temperature increases to 800 °C, the grain along c-axis has been suppressed. Roughness factor and average particle size increase with the increase of annealing temperature. The IR absorption peak appearing at about 416 cm−1 is assigned to hexagonal wurtzite ZnO. The thin film annealed at 700 °C has the maximum oxygen vacancy, which can be inferred from the green emission intensity. Photocatalytic results show that the thin film annealed at 700 °C exhibits remarkable photocatalytic activity, which may be attributed to the larger grain size, roughness factor and concentration of oxygen vacancy. Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Mg0.05Zn0.95O thin films after a cycle may be attributed to the increase of surface oxygen vacancy and photocorrosion of amorphous MgO on the surface of thin film under UV irradiation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by State Key Program for Basic Research of China (2013CB632705), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11334008, 61290301, 51072001, 51272001, 51002156, 51102072), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2012M520944), Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 1208085MF99, 1208085QA16), Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Higher Education Institution of China (No. KJ2012Z336), Shanghai Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 12R21416800), Funds for Distinguished Young Scholar of Anhui University (No. KJJQ1103).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Hefei Normal University, Hefei, 230061, China

    Zhitao Zhou, Fengjiao Shang, Guangcai Pan, Feng Wang, Changlong Liu, Wanbing Gong, Zhenfa Zi, Yiyong Wei & Jianguo Lv

  2. School of Physics and Material Science, Anhui University, Hefei, 230039, China

    Jianguo Lv, Gang He, Miao Zhang, Xueping Song & Zhaoqi Sun

  3. National Laboratory for Infrared Physics, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200083, China

    Changlong Liu, Jianguo Lv & Xiaoshuang Chen

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  1. Zhitao Zhou
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  2. Fengjiao Shang
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  3. Guangcai Pan
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  4. Feng Wang
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  11. Gang He
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  12. Miao Zhang
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  13. Xueping Song
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Correspondence to Jianguo Lv, Xiaoshuang Chen or Zhaoqi Sun.

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Zhou, Z., Shang, F., Pan, G. et al. Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Mg0.05Zn0.95O thin films prepared by sol–gel method through a cycle. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 25, 2053–2059 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-014-1839-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-014-1839-9

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