Effect of S-doping on structural, optical and electrochemical properties of vanadium oxide thin films prepared by spray pyrolysis

Abstract

In this research, S-doped vanadium oxide thin films, with doping levels from 0 to 40 at.%, are prepared by spray pyrolysis technique on glass substrates. For electrochemical measurements, the films were deposited on florin–tin oxide coated glass substrates. The effect of S-doping on structural, electrical, optical and electrochemical properties of vanadium oxide thin films was studied. The x-ray diffractometer analysis indicated that most of the samples have cubic β-V2O5 phase structure with preferred orientation along [200]. With increase in the doping levels, the structure of the samples tends to be amorphous. The scanning electron microscopy images show that the structure of the samples is nanobelt-shaped and the width of the nanobelts decreases from nearly 100 to 40 nm with increase in the S concentration. With increase in the S-doping level, the sheet resistance and the optical band gap increase from 940 to 4015 kΩ/square and 2.41 to 2.7 eV, respectively. The cyclic voltammogram results obtained for different samples show that the undoped sample is expanded and the sample prepared at 20 at.% S-doping level has sharper anodic and cathodic peaks.