Facile synthesis of ZnO/PdSe2 core-shell heterojunction for efficient photodetector application

Abstract

Palladium diselenide (PdSe2), a group-10 transition metal dichalcogenide with great optoelectronic and electrical properties due to unique structure, has gained increasing attention in the scientific community. Herein, we demonstrate an effective strategy to synthesis of ZnO/PdSe2 core–shell heterojunction nanorod arrays (HNAs) through a simple two-step method for the first time. A Pd film was deposited on ZnO NAs by an electron beam evaporation method at first. Then, the selenization process was completed by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Furthermore, the photoelectric performances of electrodes based on ZnO NAs, PdSe2 film and ZnO/PdSe2 core–shell HNAs were investigated, respectively. The ZnO/PdSe2 core–shell HNA represents better responsitivity with higher photocurrent density (1.3 mA cm−2) comparing to the ZnO NA (0.03 mA cm−2), indicating that the ZnO/PdSe2 samples are more suitable for photoelectric devices. Besides, photoelectric performance of this work is better than most of reported commercial ZnO and ZnO composite nanomaterials.