Effect of Zn-doped CuO thin films on structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties for photocatalysis application

The hunt for active components creates new opportunities to modify photocatalysis materials that we use on a daily basis to cleanse water from pollutants that pose a threat to human life and living organisms. The current study focuses on studying the structural, morphological, optical, electrical, and photocatalytic features of copper oxide (CuO). The work employs the sol-gel spin coating technique to investigate the structural, morphological, optical, electrical, and photocatalytic properties of copper oxide (CuO) doped with different concentrations (x = 5, 15, 25, and 50 wt %) of zinc (Zn). X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscope (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–visible spectrophotometry (UV–Visible), and the four-point method were among the analytical techniques used to characterize the Cu1-xZnxO thin films. The films exhibit variation in thickness, ranging from 340 nm to 96 nm, as doping intensifies. Every film has a polycrystalline structure with crystallite sizes ranging from 27 to 51 nm, according to the results of the X-ray diffraction (XRD) investigation. The energy gap drops with increased doping, from 2.74 eV to 1.81 eV. The enhanced capacitance is elucidated by the presence of Zn particles within CuO nanostructures, which results in a notable enhancement of electrical conductivity. The introduction of Zn impurity into copper oxide resulted in a substantial enhancement in its photocatalysis activity when thin films of CuO doped with 50 wt% Zn were used, and the best degradation of orange II dye reached 30 %. It is considered that Zn-doped CuO can be an effective material for screening dyes using light, improving water quality, and addressing environmental difficulties.