Production of Cu-Zr mixed metal oxides by thermal oxidation of amorphous ribbons

Abstract

Over the past decade, metal oxides are of great interest in many fields due to their properties as semiconductors. Heterostructure based on Cu-Zr mixed oxide are very promising due to their broad absorption region, making them favorable materials for photocatalysis and photoelectrodes in solar cells applications. The production of metal oxides by oxidation of amorphous ribbons is a relatively simple process that allows a good control over the size and shape of the metal oxides crystals. In this study we used amorphous ribbons from a ternary alloy Cu48Zr47Al5. The small percentage of Al in the alloy component aims to improve the semiconductor performance, working as a dopant in the metal oxide heterostructure. In order to investigate the structural and morphological properties of the obtained metal oxide heterostructure, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used, along with ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis) for determining the modified absorption regions as well as the band gap value.