{"title":"Peculiar photoelectrochemical activity of zinc oxide and tin dioxide","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jphotochem.2024.115929","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Zinc oxide thin films made by pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering combined with RF ECWR plasma on FTO or ITO substrates exhibit high photoelectrochemical activity for water splitting under UV light, but are unstable against photocorrosion. It can be suppressed by a protective layer of SnO<sub>2</sub> made by atomic layer deposition. The SnO<sub>2</sub> layer is quasi-amorphous in the as-received state, but the thermal treatment causes partial crystallization to cassiterite, without significant change of the optical band gap. Ferrocene in acetonitrile electrolyte solution is a useful redox probe for the blocking-quality tests of thin films of n-semiconductors. Both ZnO and SnO<sub>2</sub> are sensitive to irreversible electrochemical doping at potentials negative to the flatband potential. The flipping of electrochemical work functions of the Zn-terminated (0001) and O-terminated (000–1) faces of ZnO (wurtzite) takes place in acetonitrile vs. aqueous electrolyte solutions. The potentials for photocurrent onset are near the flatband potentials in an aqueous electrolyte solution for both ZnO and SnO<sub>2</sub>.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":16782,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A-chemistry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1010603024004738/pdfft?md5=4b60a8e630a9a2083ca3f15c3541d824&pid=1-s2.0-S1010603024004738-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A-chemistry","FirstCategoryId":"92","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1010603024004738","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, PHYSICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Zinc oxide thin films made by pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering combined with RF ECWR plasma on FTO or ITO substrates exhibit high photoelectrochemical activity for water splitting under UV light, but are unstable against photocorrosion. It can be suppressed by a protective layer of SnO2 made by atomic layer deposition. The SnO2 layer is quasi-amorphous in the as-received state, but the thermal treatment causes partial crystallization to cassiterite, without significant change of the optical band gap. Ferrocene in acetonitrile electrolyte solution is a useful redox probe for the blocking-quality tests of thin films of n-semiconductors. Both ZnO and SnO2 are sensitive to irreversible electrochemical doping at potentials negative to the flatband potential. The flipping of electrochemical work functions of the Zn-terminated (0001) and O-terminated (000–1) faces of ZnO (wurtzite) takes place in acetonitrile vs. aqueous electrolyte solutions. The potentials for photocurrent onset are near the flatband potentials in an aqueous electrolyte solution for both ZnO and SnO2.
期刊介绍:
JPPA publishes the results of fundamental studies on all aspects of chemical phenomena induced by interactions between light and molecules/matter of all kinds.
All systems capable of being described at the molecular or integrated multimolecular level are appropriate for the journal. This includes all molecular chemical species as well as biomolecular, supramolecular, polymer and other macromolecular systems, as well as solid state photochemistry. In addition, the journal publishes studies of semiconductor and other photoactive organic and inorganic materials, photocatalysis (organic, inorganic, supramolecular and superconductor).
The scope includes condensed and gas phase photochemistry, as well as synchrotron radiation chemistry. A broad range of processes and techniques in photochemistry are covered such as light induced energy, electron and proton transfer; nonlinear photochemical behavior; mechanistic investigation of photochemical reactions and identification of the products of photochemical reactions; quantum yield determinations and measurements of rate constants for primary and secondary photochemical processes; steady-state and time-resolved emission, ultrafast spectroscopic methods, single molecule spectroscopy, time resolved X-ray diffraction, luminescence microscopy, and scattering spectroscopy applied to photochemistry. Papers in emerging and applied areas such as luminescent sensors, electroluminescence, solar energy conversion, atmospheric photochemistry, environmental remediation, and related photocatalytic chemistry are also welcome.