| AVS 55th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Advanced Surface Engineering | Thursday Sessions |
| Session SE-ThP |
| Session: | Advanced Surface Engineering Poster Session |
| Presenter: | M. Shahjahan, University of Toyama, Japan |
| Authors: | M. Shahjahan, University of Toyama, Japan K.R. Khan, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh M.F. Hossain, University of Toyama, Japan S. Biswas, University of Toyama, Japan T. Takahashi, Toyama University, Japan |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
ZnO is a semiconductor with unique properties such as transparency in the visible and high infrared reflectivity, acoustic characteristics, high electrochemical stability and excellent electronic properties. ZnO has received much attention because of its promising applications of optoelectronic nano-devices, piezoelectric nano-generators, dye-sensitized solar cells, bio-devices and photocatalysts for degradation and complete elimination of environmental pollutants. Porous ZnO films with large surface area have great applications in photovoltaic and photocatalytic devices. Moreover Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) shows lower band gap. In the present study an effort has been made to fabricate ZnO:Al on glass substrate using low-cost spray pyrolysis method with higher surface area. Structural, optical, electrical and surface morphological studies of the fabricated films have been performed. Photocatalytical activity of the fabricated films has been studied. The crystal structure of annealed samples was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). XRD patterns show crystalline nature of the spray deposited ZnO and Al-doped ZnO thin films with three main peaks, (100), (002) and (101) planes. ZnO crystal has wurtzite structure and the calculated lattice constants a and c are 3.242 Å and 5.209 Å respectively and the grain sizes are in the range of 16.75 to 52.19 nm. The surface morphology of the films was observed by a scanning electron microscope. It has been observed that the film surfaces are varied with the deposition conditions and doping concentrations. The spectral absorption coefficient of the ZnO and ZnO:Al films was determined using the spectral data of transmittance and reflectance in the UV-visible wavelength range. The direct and gap energies for ZnO and ZnO:Al were determined and the values obtained are 3.2 eV and 2.88 eV, respectively. Photocatalytic activity of ZnO:Al thin films have been evaluated with various pollutant under UV-visible irradiation.