Bandgap design of fabricated BN/ZnO/Al2O3/TiO2 doped graphene using XPS approach

Abstract

This study investigates the use of BN/ZnO/Al2O3/TiO2 nanoparticles as dopants for Graphene nanoparticles. The sintering process was employed to manufacture semiconductor materials. The bandgap serves as the central feature of an atomic heterojunction, playing a crucial role in determining the characteristics or overall quality of the semiconductor materials involved. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was employed to ascertain the bandgap values of Boron (B), Nitrogen (N), and Carbon (C) at the interfaces of BN/Graphene, BN/ZnO/Graphene, BN/Al2O3/Graphene, and BN/TiO2/Graphene. The survey spectra were examined to provide evidence of atoms' presence and their respective atomic proportions. The analysis of the narrow spectra of XPS was employed to determine the binding energy of atoms within various materials. The conduction band offset (CBO) and valence band offset (VBO) of the aforementioned heterojunctions were computed. The estimation of the ratio between the conduction band offset (CBO) and the valence band offset (VBO), is denoted as ΔEc/ΔEv,. The significant change in the energy gap in the valance band concerning the change in conduction band energy demonstrates that this material possesses the characteristics of an exemplary semiconductor. The present investigation reveals that the BN/TiO2/Graphene heterojunction exhibits the highest values of ΔEv/ΔEc, namely 13.07 for nitrogen (N) and 15.07 for boron (B). The results suggest that the combination of BN/TiO2/Graphene semiconductors holds promising potential for applications in nanoelectronics.