A study on 170 MeV Au13+ irradiated nanostructured metal oxide (Fe2O3 and CuO) thin films for PEC applications

✍ Scribed by Yatendra S. Chaudhary; Saif A. Khan; Chanakya Tripathi; Rohit Shrivastav; Vibha R. Satsangi; Sahab Dass

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 169 KB
• Volume: 244
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0168-583X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2005.11.034

✦ Synopsis

One hundred and seventy MeV Au 13+ irradiation induced modification in photoelectrochemical (PEC) and structural properties of nanostructured 2%Cr-Fe 2 O 3 and CuO thin films has been investigated. The X-ray diffractogram of both oxides indicated diffused nature of peaks with the appearance of crystalline peaks, indicative of partial amorphization taking place at higher fluence i.e. 10 13 ions cm À2 . Upon irradiation, the band gap energy was found to decrease marginally. The irradiated 2%Cr-Fe 2 O 3 samples (fluence 10 12 ions cm À2 ) used as working electrode in the PEC cell showed enhanced photocurrent generation. A decrease in photocurrent generation was recorded in case of irradiated 2%Cr-Fe 2 O 3 /CuO at higher fluence i.e. 10 13 ions cm À2 and irradiated CuO sample at fluence 10 12 ions cm À2 , which may be attributed to the creation of greater number of kink sites/dislocations, that are probably acting as recombination centers for photogenerated electrons.