Structural, photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical properties of porous ZnO nanosheets prepared by air cold plasma

Wei Zhang; Changlin Li; Zunyi Tian; Zhongyu Hou

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ac2650

Structural, photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical properties of porous ZnO nanosheets prepared by air cold plasma

Nanotechnology. 2021 Oct 6;32(50). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac2650.

Authors

Wei Zhang¹, Changlin Li¹, Zunyi Tian¹, Zhongyu Hou¹

Affiliation

¹ National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 34517356
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac2650

Abstract

Porous ZnO nanosheets with different thickness were prepared on zinc substrate by air cold plasma for photocatalytic degradation and photoelectrochemical water splitting. The ZnO nanosheets consisted of nanocrystallines with high-density oxygen-related defects characterized by the strong red luminescence. The UV absorption tended to be saturated as the thickness increased, and the saturation occurred at a thickness of about 2.3μm. Under UV irradiation (365 nm), the 2.3μm thick sample with higher content of oxygen vacancies and oxygen interstitials showed the highest photocatalytic activity (and higher than P25 TiO₂) in degradation of gaseous ethyl acetate. Due to the excellent UV-vis absorption ability and the effective transfer of photogenerated carriers, the ZnO nanosheets with thickness of 3.3μm showed a photocurrent density as high as 0.22 mA cm^-2at -0.28 V (versus Ag/AgCl) under AM 1.5 G 100 mW cm^-2.

Keywords: ZnO nanosheet; cold plasma; high porosity; red luminescence; photocatalytic activity; photoelectrochemical properties.