Synthesis and characterization of PbS/ZnO thin film for photocatalytic hydrogen production

Abstract

Abstract In this work, PbS/ZnO thin film was designed in order to assess the photocatalytic hydrogen production from the water splitting. A p-type PbS thin film was prepared by chemical bath deposition onto a glass substrate, followed by an n-type ZnO thin film deposition by RF magnetron sputtering. The structural and morphological characterization was carried out by grazing angle x-ray diffraction (GA-XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively, while the optical properties were studied using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by quantifying the hydrogen production under UV light irradiation using gas chromatography. The results showed a higher photocatalytic hydrogen production of PbS/ZnO thin film (7.38 μmol cm −2 h −1 ) compared to PbS (3.35 μmol cm −2 h −1 ) and ZnO (2.45 μmol cm −2 h −1 ) thin films. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) test showed the synergistic effect between PbS and ZnO thin films for the generation and transport of the charge carriers.