Study on fabrication of Sn-doped ZnO thin films oriented to the application for organic dye degradation catalysts in water environment

Abstract

In this study, zinc oxide (ZnO) doped with Sn thin films were deposited on the glass substrate at 550 °C by dip-coating technique using the solution synthesized by sol-gel method. The structural, surface morphology, optical and photocatalytic property of thin films were studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the Sn-doping greatly changed the microstructure, morphology and optical properties of ZnO films, which may contribute to the enhancement of photocatalytic activity. Additionally, the photocatalytic activity was investigated using methylene blue dye under solar irradiation, with has high UV index from 7 to 8. The results indicated that Sn-doped ZnO had a higher photocatalytic activity and Sn dopant greatly increased the photocatalytic activity of ZnO thin film.