Photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanostructured film grown by activated reactive
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1217-Y03-50
Photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanostructured film grown by activated reactive evaporation. D. Yuvaraj, K. Narasimha Rao Department of Instrumentation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India.
Abstract ZnO nanostructured films were deposited at room temperature on glass substrates and cotton fabrics by activated reactive evaporation in a single step without using metal catalyst or templates. Morphological observation has shown that the nanostructured film contains seaurchinlike structures, and this seaurchin containing large number of randomly grown ZnO nanoneedles. Microstructural analysis revealed the single crystalline nature of the grown nanoneedles and their growth direction was identified to be along [0002]. PL spectrum of nanostructured film show relatively weak near-band edge emission peak at 386 nm, and a broad intense peak at 560 nm due to the oxygen defect-related emission. ZnO nanostructured films grown on glass substrates and cotton fabrics have shown good photocatalytic activity against rhodamine B. Introduction Nanostructured materials having unique physical and chemical properties have attracted great interest in recent years [1]. Among the different nanostructured materials, ZnO a wide direct band gap semiconductor (3.37 eV) with a large exciton binding energy of 60 meV and good physical and chemical stability has been widely studied for its potential applications in ultraviolet laser diodes, gas sensors, solar cells and field emission devices [2]. As ZnO also has a similar property to that of TiO2, Nanostructures of ZnO have been recently investigated for the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. ZnO crystallizes as wurtzite, due to the presence of polar surfaces and preferential growth direction, ZnO has a rich family of unique and peculiar nanostructures [3]. Nanostructures with different morphologies such as belts, rods, tubes, plates, flowers, tetrapods, etc. have been synthesized by different physical and chemical vapor deposition and solution growth techniques [2, 3]. Requirement of high processing temperature, crystalline substrates, metal catalyst, seed layers and longer growth times are the general drawbacks of the conventional growth technique. Earlier we had reported about the room temperature deposition of ZnO nanostructured film by plasma assisted reactive evaporation (ARE) on different substrates such as glass and polymer without using catalyst and templates [4]. The aim of this report is to explore the different possible application of this ARE process in the area of nanotechnology. In the ARE technique nanostructures are grown in the gas phase and deposited as nanostructured film at room temperature on the substrates placed above the plasma source. Using this ARE technique ZnO nanostructures were deposited on glass substrates and cotton fabrics. The optical and structural properties of these grown nanostructured films were characterized by photoluminescence (PL), XRD and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). ZnO nanostructured films deposite
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