Influence of Sn doping on photoluminescence and photoelectrochemical properties of ZnO nanorod arrays

Abstract

Herein, the nanostructured Sn containing ZnO is directly synthesized on the surface of substrate by modified sol gel approach under low-temperature condition. The samples are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman-scattering, photoluminescence (PL) and photoelectrochemical analyses. The SEM micrographs show that the undoped and 1 at. % Sn doped films are composed of nanorods and the concentration of 2 at. % Sn doping hinders the rod-like structure's growth and modulates into granular nature. The investigations of XRD reveal that the synthesized undoped and Sn doped ZnO nanorods possess a perfect hexagonal growth habit of wurtzite zinc oxide, along the (002) direction of preference. The Raman spectra demonstrate that the vibrational mode of E<inf>1</inf>(LO), which is very weak in undoped and 1at. % Sn doped ZnO, is strongly enhanced with 2 at. % Sn doping into ZnO lattice. PL spectra show that strong UV emission in pure and 1 at. % Sn doped ZnO, while there is dominant green emission in 2 at. % Sn doped ZnO. Moreover, all the samples are photo electrochemically active and exhibit the highest photocurrent of 28 ?A for the 1 at. % Sn doped ZnO nanorod arrays in 0.2M Na<inf>2</inf>SO<inf>4</inf> electrolyte, on light irradiation. Time dependent photoresponse tests are carried out by measuring the photocurrent under chopped light irradiation. © 2014 The Korean Institute of Metals and Materials and Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.