Comparative investigation on physicochemical and photocatalytic properties of CuS and Al3+ doped CuS thin films

Abstract

By using the chemical bath approach, CuS, and Al-doped CuS thin films were formed onto glass substrates. To enhance the photocatalytic capabilities of the traditional CdS thin film, Al3+ ions were used as doping element. Investigations were done into how the amount of Al doping affected the physical characteristics of CuS films by varying Al content as 2 wt%, 4 wt%, 6 wt%, and 8 wt%). The bandgap energy, thickness, morphology, and crystalline structure of CuS and Al-doped CuS thin films were examined. By using FTIR and FT-Raman studies, the functional groups contained in the CuS and Al-doped CuS thin films were observed. EDS was used to estimate the elemental components that are present in the prepared thin films. Degradation of the textile dyes rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB) was used to examine the photocatalytic characteristics of the produced films. Among the produced films 8 wt% Al-doped CuS thin film showed high efficiency in degradation of both MB (98 %) and RhB (98 %) dyes.