Qidong Zhao

Influence of adsorbed oxygen on the surface photovoltage and photoluminescence of ZnO nanorods

ZnO nanorods have been prepared with sol–gel methods using zinc acetate dihydrate in ethanol in the presence of lithium hydroxide via alkaline hydrolysis. The electron transfer behaviour at the surface and interface in ZnO nanorods was investigated by means of the surface photovoltage technique. The influence of adsorbed oxygen on the surface photovoltage (SPV) response of ZnO nanorods was studied by surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPS) and field-induced surface photovoltage spectroscopy (FISPS). The results of SPS demonstrate that for ZnO nanorods the built-in electric field should be a main driving force for the separation of the photogenerated electron–hole pairs and its ensuing SPV response. The method of photogenerated charge recombination was also studied with the aid of PL spectroscopy. It is shown that the two methods of energy relaxation in light-excited ZnO nanorods are competitive. When oxygen is adsorbed at the surface and the built-in electric field is formed, the SPV response should be the leading one. Nevertheless, when oxygen is absent, the energy relaxation is mostly carried out by radiative emission.

Photovoltaic properties of a ZnO nanorod array affected by ethanol and liquid-crystalline porphyrin

A vertically aligned array of ZnO nanorods, fabricated on conductive ITO substrate in aqueous solution, was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV-visible transmission spectroscopy. Surface photovoltage (SPV) techniques based on a lock-in amplifier and a Kelvin probe were both employed to study the photogenerated charges in the system. The effects of ethanol solvent and a liquid-crystalline porphyrin, [5-(para-dodecyloxy)phenyl-10,15,20-tri-phenyl] porphyrin (DPTPP), on the photovoltage enhancement in the ZnO nanorod array were studied via SPV comparison between different irradiation directions on the system. We demonstrate that the ethanol adsorption could induce the space charge region to expand towards the ZnO/ITO interface. In the absence of ethanol, the ZnO nanorod array with the DPTPP adsorption showed enhanced SPV with reduced attenuation rate of photogenerated charge carriers. We found that the separation of photogenerated charges could be further improved by coating the surface with DPTPP and ethanol together. Furthermore, the SPV spectra patterns of the composite system with opposite incident-light directions reveal that the DPTPP molecules adsorbed just at the surface of ZnO nanorods adopt a more monomeric alignment in contrast to the aggregative state in the DPTPP bulk.