Narrow Results

ZnO thin films were grown by the RF magnetron sputtering technique at different substrate temperatures, from RT to 300°C. The crystallite size was calculated from XRD and the grain size was measured from AFM for different substrate temperatures. The influence of the substrate temperature on the electrical properties of the films was investigated through the Hall effect, and conductivity studies were performed under UV light illumination. The conductivity and the carrier mobility of the films were found to increase with increasing substrate temperature, which can be due to the grain-boundary-dominated conduction mechanism. The thermal activation energy and photosensitivity of the films were calculated, and the results are presented in this paper.

The CuInS₂ quantum dots sensitization of TiO₂ nanonails (NNs) array was successfully carried out by a successive ionic layer absorption and reaction (SILAR) method using CuCl₂ ⋅ 2H₂O, InCl₃ ⋅ 4H₂O and Na₂S ⋅ 9H₂O as precursors. The morphology, elemental composition and crystalline structure of the CuInS₂ quantum dots sensitized TiO₂ NNs array heterojunction nanostructures were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray-photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The above characterization results could unanimously reveal that the nanoparticles successfully loaded on the TiO₂ NNs array can be assigned as CuInS₂ quantum dots. UV-Vis absorption measurements indicated that the CuInS₂ quantum dots sensitization extended the visible light absorption. The largest short-circuit photocurrent density of 17.7mA/cm² was obtained, which indicated that the CuInS₂ was a promising material in activating visible light functionalities and enhancing photoelectrochemical performance.