Femtosecond laser deposition of TiO₂ nanoparticle-assembled films with embedded CdS nanoparticles

Abstract

Based on the normal pulsed laser ablation method, femtosecond pulsed laser deposition (fs-PLD) is adopted in vacuum for the production of TiO₂ nanoparticle-assembled films. We study the morphology and electronic characteristics of TiO₂ nanoparticle-assembled films deposited at different oxygen background gas pressures from high vacuum (∼10⁻⁴ Pa) to 100 Pa and different deposition time. Our results show that TiO₂ nanoparticle-assembled films obtained in high vacuum present both a mixture with rutile phase and anatase phase and a pure rutile phase. At the same time, there are more mesoporous structures in the film after annealing, which is beneficial for the enhancement of photocatalytic activity. In water splitting experiment, part of the TiO₂ nanoparticle-assembled films embedded with a small mass fraction of CdS nanoparticles (∼5%) present an interesting photocurrent enhancement with a maximum value of ∼0.2 mA/cm² under a solar simulator.

Keywords

Anatase Phase / Water Splitting / Rutile Phase / Solar Simulator / Nanoparticle Film

References

[1] AusanioG, AmorusoS, BaroneaA C, BruzzeseR, IannottiaV, LanotteL, VitielloM. Applied Surface Science, 2006, 252: 4678

[2] OraiqatI, KennedyJ, MathisJ, ClarkeR. Femtosecond Laser Deposition of Semiconductor Quantum Dot Films, International Symposium on High Power Laser Ablation, 2012, 1464: 402

[3] AmorusoS, TuziS, PallottiDK, ArutaC, BruzzeseR, ChiarellaF, FittipaldiR, LettieriS, MaddalenaP, SambriA, VecchioneA, WangX. Applied Surface Science, 2013, 270: 307

[4] LandisE C, PhillipsK C, MazurE, FriendC M. Journal of Applied Physics, 2012, 112: 063108

[5] IannottiV, AmorusoS, AusanioG, BaroneAC, CampanaC, WangX, LanotteL. Applied Surface Science, 2009, 255: 5224

[6] LiM-y, HanX-s, XuX-r, MaC-y, YangL-y, QinW-j, YinS-g, ZhangF-l. Journal of Optoelectronics·Laser, 2013, 24: 1673

[7] WangS, YuZ-c, LiuJ-w, SunB, MaD, ZhangX-j. Journal of Optoelectronics ·Laser, 2013, 24: 470

[8] SangL X, ZhangZ Y, MaC F. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2011, 36: 4732

[9] AnW-J, WangW-N, RamalingamB, MukherjeeS, DaubayevB, dhyayS G-, BiswasP. Langmuir, 2012, 28: 7528

[10] SangL, TanH, ZhangX, WuY, MaC, BurdaC. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2012, 116: 18633

[11] OuyangJ, ChangM, ZhangY, LiX. Thin Solid Films, 2012, 520: 2994

[12] LakshminarasimhanN, BaeE, ChoiW. Journal of Physics Chemistry C, 2007, 111: 15244

[13] LengW H, BarnesP R F, JuozapaviciusM, O’ReganB C, DurrantJ R. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2010, 1: 967

[14] ChenH-W, HuangK-C, HsuC-Y, LinC-Y, ChenJ-G, LeeC-P, LinL-Y, VittalR, HoK-C. Electrochimica Acta, 2011, 56: 7991

[15] WangH, FariaJ L, DongS, ChangY. Materials Science and Engineering B, 2012, 177: 913

[16] NiX, AnoopK K, BiancoM, AmorusoS, WangX, LiT, HuM, SongZ. Chinese Optics Letters, 2013, 11: 093201

[17] TuziS. Femtosecond Laser Deposition Thin Films of Nanoparticles Titanium Dioxide, 2012,