Abstract
Boron-doped zinc oxide sheet-spheres were synthesized on PET–ITO flexible substrates using a hydrothermal method at 90 °C for 5 h. The results of X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated that the B atoms were successfully doped into the ZnO lattice, the incorporation of B led to an increase in the lattice constant of ZnO and a change in its internal stress. The growth mechanism of pure ZnO nanorods and B-doped ZnO sheet-spheres was specifically investigated. The as-prepared BZO/PET–ITO heterojunction possessed obvious rectification properties and its positive turn-on voltage was 0.4 V. The carrier transport mechanisms involved three models such as hot carrier tunneling theory, tunneling recombination, and series-resistance effect were explored. The BZO/PET–ITO nanostructures were more effective than pure ZnO to degrade the RY 15, and the degradation rate reached 41.45%. The decomposition process with BZO nanostructure followed first-order reaction kinetics. The photocurrent and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy revealed that the B-doping could promote the separation of photo-generated electron-hole pairs, which was beneficial to enhance the photocatalytic activity. The photocurrent density of B-doped and pure ZnO/PET–ITO were 0.055 mA/cm2 and 0.016 mA/cm2, respectively. The photocatalytic mechanism of the sample was analyzed by the energy band theory.
Highlights
Zinc oxide (ZnO), as a direct wide band gap II-VI semiconductor and a prominent member of the family of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films, has been extensively investigated, which possesses excellent characteristics with a band gap of 3.37 eV at room temperature[1], high optical transmittance, and outstanding short-wavelength luminescence
By comparing the X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks in the illustration, the marked diffraction peaks are all characteristic peaks of ZnO, except for the two diffraction peaks at 47° and 54.6° that are attributed to the Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)–ITO substrate
We found that the lattice constants (a = 3.206 Å, c = 5.233 Å) and the crystal plane spacing of B-doped ZnO (BZO)/PET–ITO are both larger than that of ZnO/PET–ITO (a = 3.196 Å, c = 5.134 Å)
Summary
Zinc oxide (ZnO), as a direct wide band gap II-VI semiconductor and a prominent member of the family of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films, has been extensively investigated, which possesses excellent characteristics with a band gap of 3.37 eV at room temperature[1], high optical transmittance, and outstanding short-wavelength luminescence. The electrical and optical performances of ZnO can be greatly improved by doping impurity elements into the crystal lattice[6,7,8], which contributes to increase the electron concentration in the conduction band of ZnO, as well as improves its transparency and stability in the visible-near-infrared region. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer possessing both high transmittance in the visible light range and outstanding heat resistance (200 °C) relative to other polymers, so it can be used as an effective flexible substrate material[15]. The light-catalyzed reaction process of ZnO nanostructures was studied based on the energy band theory
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