Interfacial charge-transfer process in nanosemiconductor- N -benzylpiperidine phenanthroimidazole (BDPI)-metal heterostructure: A combined experimental and theoretical studies of BDPI-(FeO) n composites

Abstract

Abstract The interfacial electron-hole recombination at the interface of zinc copper ferrite/zinc oxide composite nanosemiconductor: 1-(1-benzylpiperidin-4-yl)-2-(3, 4-dimethoxyphenyl)-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole (BDPI) in the fabricated Cu-ZnO-BDPI-Ag heterostructure have been studied. In which Ag-BDPI HIB is higher than ZnO-BDPI HIB and ZnO-BDPI EIB is lower than Cu-ZnO-BDPI EIB. Therefore electrons flow from Ag into the ZnO CB is possible until reaching the lowest energy state since ZnO has high electron mobility and hence Ag-to-BDPI-to-ZnO charge transfer direction is the dominant one. X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS) shows doped iron and copper existed as Fe2+ and Fe3+ and Cu2+, respectively, in zinc copper ferrite/zinc oxide composite. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of zinc copper ferrite/zinc oxide composite show that they appear to be cocoon-like shape and the selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern supports the nano crystalline character of the synthesized material. The faster interfacial charge transfer of zinc copper ferrite/zinc oxide composite was analyzed by Nyquist plot. The near zero remanence magnetic indicates the superparamagnetic behavior of zinc copper ferrite/zinc oxide composite. The binding energy and energy gap of the benzylpiperidine phenanthrimidazole–iron oxide composites dependent on nature of iron oxide cluster and the charge transfer in BDPI–Fe3O4 composite is faster than the same in other composites. Molecular docking technique has also been carried out to understand the BDPI–DNA interactions.