Processing of SnO2/ZnO Heterostructure by the Sol-Gel Technique for Photocatalytic Applications

Abstract

The construction of a SnO2 and ZnO thin film heterostructure is an efficient way to improve the photocatalytic properties of ZnO. However, the current techniques to produce it, for instance, chemical and physical vapor deposition are expensive and therefore not affordable for everyone. Several efforts have been made in order to obtain high quality thin films with lower cost using sol-gel base techniques. The aim of this work is to process high quality and low-cost SnO2 and ZnO thin film heterostructures supported on glass. The thin films were deposited by the spin coating method. The samples obtained were characterized by XRD, SEM, UV-Vis and FTIR. The thin film heterostructure exhibits homogeneous size nanoparticles (10~50 nm) that conform the surface and uniform submicronic thickness. High values of optical transmission >80% were measured for the heterostructure in the range (380-740 nm). The band gap of Eg 3.25 and 3.69 eV were obtained from Tauc’s plot.