Insight on Photocatalytic and Photoinduced Antimicrobial Properties of ZnO Thin Films Deposited by HiPIMS through Thermal Oxidation.

Endrika Widyastuti,Jue-Liang Hsu,Ying-Chieh Lee

doi:10.3390/nano12030463

Endrika Widyastuti, Jue-Liang Hsu + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12030463

Copy DOI

Abstract

Zinc oxide thin films have been developed through thermal oxidation of Zinc thin films grown by high impulse power magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). The influence of various sputtering power on thin film structural, morphological, photocatalytic, and antimicrobial properties was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed that the crystalline phase of ZnO thin films consists of a hexagonal wurtzite structure. Increasing the sputtering power will lead to intrinsic stress on thin films that promote whisker formation. In this study, whiskers were successfully developed on the thin films without precursors/catalysts and not thermally treated over the Zn melting point. This finding showed that the film phase structure and morphology are significantly affected by sputtering power. It was found that ZnO thin films exhibit high photocatalytic performance under UV irradiation (89.91%) of methylene blue after 300 min of irradiation. The antimicrobial activity on ZnO thin films showed significant inhibition activity (p < 0.05) against E. coli, S. aureus, and C. albicans. However, the whisker formation on ZnO thin films is not accessible to enhance photocatalytic and antimicrobial activity. This study demonstrates that the HiPIMS method through the thermal oxidation process can promote a good performance of ZnO thin films as photocatalyst and antimicrobial agents.

Highlights

Metal oxide nanomaterials have been found to exhibit superior photocatalysis by the hinge on the interaction of light and solid particles of semiconductors
Zinc Oxide (ZnO) thin films were successfully fabricated through thermal oxidation of Zn thin films grown by the High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) method
Sputtering power played a role in influencing the structure, morphology, optical and photocatalytic properties of ZnO thin films

Summary

Introduction

Metal oxide nanomaterials have been found to exhibit superior photocatalysis by the hinge on the interaction of light and solid particles of semiconductors. Several methods have been introduced to synthesize the ZnO thin films, such as chemical vapor deposition [10], molecular beam epitaxy [11], sol-gel [12], pulsed laser deposition [13], and High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) [14] Among these processes, the HiPIMS technique is a potential approach for developing high-quality thin films due to high-density plasmas with excessive quantities of ionized species, high energy transfer functions, low duty cycles, and long pulse off periods that lead to a substantially lower total heat load to the substrate compared with other methods [15,16,17]

Methods

Results

Conclusion