Abstract
In this study, Zn-Cu2O composite films were grown on fluorine-doped tin-oxide (FTO) substrates by using the electrochemical deposition method. Various amounts of Zinc (Zn) were added to grow the Zn-Cu2O composite films. We analyzed the morphological, structural, optical energy band gap and photocurrent density properties of the Zn-Cu2O composite films by using various measurements such as field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible spectrophotometry and potentiostat/galvanostat measurements, respectively. As a result, the highest photocurrent density value of −4.04 mA/cm2 was obtained for the 30-wt% sample, which had the lowest Cu2O (111)/ ZnO (101) XRD peak intensity ratio. The highest photocurrent density value from the 30-wt% sample was approximately 2.35 times higher than that from the non-composite Cu2O film (0-wt% sample). From this study, we found that adding Zn could improve the photocurrent values of Zn-Cu2O composite films.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
F. Qian, G. Wang and Y. Li, Nano Lett. 10, 4686 (2010).
C. Chiang, J. Epstein, A. Brown, J. N. Munday, J. N. Culver and S. Ehrman, Nano Lett. 12, 6005 (2012).
J. Cui and U. J. Gibson, J. Phys. Chem. C 114, 6408 (2010).
K. Akimoto, S. Ishizuka, M. Yanagita, Y. Nawa, G. K. Paul and T. Sakurai, Solar Energy 80, 715 (2006).
Z. Zhang, R. Dua, L. Zhang, H. Zhu, H. Zhang and P. Wang, ACS Nano. 7, 1709 (2013).
M. Grätzel, Nature. 414, 338 (2001).
X. Bai, L. Wang, R. Zong, Y. Lv, Y. Sun and Y. Zhu, Langmuir 29, 3097 (2013).
I. S. Cho, Z. Chen, A. J. Forman, D. R. Kim, P. M. Rao, T. F. Jaramillo and X. Zheng, Nano Lett. 11, 4978 (2011).
E. Thimsen, F. Le Formal, M. Graätzel and S. C. Warren, Nano Lett. 11, 35 (2010).
J. Su, X. Feng, J. D. Sloppy, L. Guo and C.A. Grimes, Nano Lett. 11, 203 (2010).
S. Liu, J. Tian, L. Wang, Y. Luo and X. Sun, Catal. Sci. Tech. 2, 339 (2012).
T. G. Kim, H. Ryu, W. J. Lee and J. H. Yoon, Curr. Appl. Phys. 15, 473 (2015).
Y. Liu, Y. Liu, R. Mu, H. Yang, C. Shao, J. Zhang, Y. Lu, D. Shen and X. Fan, Semicond. Sci. Tech. 20, 44 (2005).
M. Hara, T. Kondo, M. Komoda, S. Ikeda, K. Shinohara, A. Tanaka, J. Kondo and K. Domen, Chem. Comm. 357 (1998).
P. de Jongh, D. Vanmaekelbergh and J. Kelly, Chem. Comm. 1069 (1999).
S. Ishizuka et al., physica status solidi (c) 1, 1067 (2004).
M. Ivill, M. Overberg, C. Abernathy, D. Norton, A. Hebard, N. Theodoropoulou and J. Budai, Solid-State Electron. 47, 2215 (2003).
T. Maruyama, Solar Energy Mater. Solar Cells. 56, 85 (1998).
A. Musa, T. Akomolafe and M. Carter, Solar Energy Mater. Solar Cells 51, 305 (1998).
H. Yu, J. Yu, S. Liu and S. Mann, Chem. Mater. 19, 4327 (2007).
T. G. Kim, H. B. Oh and H. Ryu, J. Alloys Compd. 612, 74 (2014).
T. G. Kim, J. T. Jang and H. Ryu, J. Korean Phys. Soc. 63, 78 (2013).
C. Chiang, Y. Shin and S. Ehrman, J. Electrochem. Soc. 159, B227 (2011).
A. Paracchino, N. Mathews, T. Hisatomi, M. Stefik, S. D. Tilley and M. Grätzel, Energy Environ. Sci. 5, 8673 (2012).
A. Paracchino, V. Laporte, K. Sivula, M. Grätzel and E. Thimsen, Nature Mater. 10, 456 (2011).
R. Y. Wang, D. W. Kirk and G. X. Zhang, J. Electrochem. Soc. 153, C357 (2006).
B. Heng, T. Xiao, W. Tao, X. Hu, X. Chen, B. Wang, D. Sun and Y. Tang, Cryst. Growth Design 12, 3998 (2012).
C. Zhu and M. J. Panzer, Appl. Mater. & Interfaces 7, 5624 (2015).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.3938/jkps.67.1895.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, T.G., Lee, H.J., Ryu, H. et al. Effects of Zn amount on the properties of Zn-Cu2O composite films grown for PEC photoelectrodes by using electrochemical deposition. Journal of the Korean Physical Society 67, 1273–1277 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3938/jkps.67.1273
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3938/jkps.67.1273