Study of the structural, optical, and electrical properties of copper oxide thin films undoped and doped
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Date
2024-05-09
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University of 20 aout 1955-Skikda
Abstract
In this study, copper oxide thin films undoped and doped were elaborated by two methods:
pneumatic spray pyrolysis and sol-gel spin coating on a glass substrate, and used in two
applications: self-cleaning and photocatalytic, respectively. All the samples are characterized
by X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive Xray, UV-visible spectrophotometry, and four-point method. Undoped CuO layers were made
by spray pyrolysis for different spray times. The XRD analysis of these layers showed that the
films have a monoclinic structure (tenorite) and a preferential growth in the (111) direction.
According to Scherer's formula the crystallite size is nanometric between 14 – 23nm. The water
contact angle values in all samples are greater than 90° and range from 96.4° to 103.2°, as we
can see from these results that all the samples are hydrophobic films and excellent in a selfcleaning application. Thin films of copper oxide undoped and doped with aluminum and silver
(5%, 15%, 25 %, and 50%) were deposited by the sol-gel spin coating method on a glass
substrate. According to XRD diffraction and by Williamson-Hall plot method, the crystallite
size varies between 21– 46 nm and 21– 33 nm and increases with the increase in Al and Ag
doping, respectively. The electrical conductivity values increase with the presence of doping.
Aluminum doping has good structural and electrical properties when compared to elemental
silver. The Photocatalysis results showed that doping of copper oxide by (Al) improves the
photocatalytic efficiency, and the best degradation of a dye (orange II) under UV irradiation
after 5 hours reaches 61% for the use for thin layers of CuO doped with 50% Al.
Description
Keywords
Thin films, spray pyrolysis