Simultaneous Epitaxy Growth and Photoelectrochemical Performance of ZnO Nanorod Arrays and Films

doi:10.11901/1005.3093.2021.149

Chinese Journal of Materials Research

2022, Vol. 36

Issue (7): 481-488 DOI: 10.11901/1005.3093.2021.149

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Simultaneous Epitaxy Growth and Photoelectrochemical Performance of ZnO Nanorod Arrays and Films

XIONG Tinghui¹^,², CAI Wenhan¹^,², MIAO Yu¹^,², CHEN Chenlong²(

)

^1.College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China
^2.Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials Chemistry and Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Optoelectronic Semiconductors and Efficient Devices, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Science, Fuzhou 350002, China

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XIONG Tinghui, CAI Wenhan, MIAO Yu, CHEN Chenlong. Simultaneous Epitaxy Growth and Photoelectrochemical Performance of ZnO Nanorod Arrays and Films. Chinese Journal of Materials Research, 2022, 36(7): 481-488.

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Abstract

The simultaneous epitaxial growth of vertical nanorod arrays and thin films of zinc oxide (ZnO) was realized on a gold-plated plane sapphire substrate via a simple chemical vapor deposition method. In this nanostructure, the vertical single crystal nanorods are hexagonal prism or cylindrical in shape, and are all grown on a ZnO thin film, so that the vertical nanorods are connected to each other through the beneath thin oxide ZnO film. In comparison with ZnO nanofilms, the prepared nanostructure has excellent photoelectrochemistry (PEC) performance with an incident photocurrent efficiency of 2.4 times that of the simple ZnO nanofilms; while its light energy conversion efficiency is 5 times that of ZnO nanofilms. Its excellent PEC performance can be attributed to its high surface area-to-volume ratio and the carrier transport channel provided by the supporter ZnO film. The mechanism for cooperative growth of ZnO nanorod arrays and thin films was proposed as follows: during the processing, Au liquefies and absorbs Zn atoms in the atmosphere forming alloys. After the alloy droplets were supersaturated ZnO begins to nucleate, and then ZnO film formed on the surface of the substrate. At the same time, Zn autocatalyzed (vapor-solid)VS growth and Au catalyzed (vapor-liquid-solid)VLS growth occurred, respectively forming hexagonal prism nanorods and cylindrical nanorods, and finally a vertical nanorod array was connected through the underneath thin ZnO film.

Key words: inorganic non-metallic materials ZnO nanorod arrays simultaneous epitaxy PEC

Received: 24 February 2021

ZTFLH:

O646

Fund: Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province(2018J01110)

About author: CHEN Chenlong, Tel: 15392001522, E-mail: clchen@fjirsm.ac.cn

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	Wenhan CAI
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https://www.cjmr.org/EN/10.11901/1005.3093.2021.149 OR https://www.cjmr.org/EN/Y2022/V36/I7/481

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of tube furnace

Fig.2 Top-view SEM image (a) and cross-sectional image (b) of simultaneously epitaxial growth of ZnO nanostructure (ZnO films and nanorod arrays)

Fig.3 XRD pattern of simultaneously epitaxial growth of ZnO nanostructure

Fig.4 30° squint images of ZnO nanostructures, growth times of which is 0 min (a), 2 min (b), 4 min (c), and 8 min (d)

Fig.5 Schematic illustration of the growing mechanism for ZnO nanostructures

Fig.6 XPS spectrum (a) and the spectrum of Au 4f-Zn 3p (b) of ZnO nanostructures with growth times of 2 min and 8 min

Fig.7 UV-visible absorption spectra of ZnO nanofilms and ZnO nanostructures (a) and IPCE spectroscopy of ZnO nanofilms and ZnO nanostructures photoelectrodes (b)

Fig.8 Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) curves (a), photocurrent-time (J-t) curves (b), light energy conversion efficiency (η) curves(c) and Nyquist plots (d) of the nanofilm and ZnO nanostructured photoelectrodes, the solid lines represent the fitted curves of the measured data to the equivalent circuit model

Table 1 ZnO photocurrent density of other similar structures

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