Zn3N2 nanowires: growth, properties and oxidation

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Abstract

Zinc nitride (Zn ₃N ₂) nanowires (NWs) with diameters of 50 to 100 nm and a cubic crystal structure have been grown on 1 nm Au/Al ₂O ₃ via the reaction of Zn with NH ₃ including H ₂ between 500°C and 600°C. These exhibited an optical band gap of ≈ 3.2 eV, estimated from steady state absorption-transmission spectroscopy. We compared this with the case of ZnO NWs and discussed the surface oxidation of Zn ₃N ₂ NWs which is important and is expected to lead to the formation of a Zn ₃N ₂/ZnO core-shell NW, the energy band diagram of which was calculated via the self-consistent solution of the Poisson-Schrödinger equations within the effective mass approximation by taking into account a fundamental energy band gap of 1.2 eV. In contrast, only highly oriented Zn ₃N ₂ layers with a cubic crystal structure and an optical band gap of ≈ 2.9 eV were obtained on Au/Si(001) using the same growth conditions.

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Most cited references 27

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Fundamentals of zinc oxide as a semiconductor

Anderson Janotti, Chris Van de Walle (2009)

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Nitrogen-doped ZnO nanowire arrays for photoelectrochemical water splitting.

Xunyu Yang, Abraham Wolcott, Gongming Wang … (2009)

We report the rational synthesis of nitrogen-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:N) nanowire arrays, and their implementation as photoanodes in photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells for hydrogen generation from water splitting. Dense and vertically aligned ZnO nanowires were first prepared from a hydrothermal method, followed by annealing in ammonia to incorporate N as a dopant. Nanowires with a controlled N concentration (atomic ratio of N to Zn) up to approximately 4% were prepared by varying the annealing time. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies confirm N substitution at O sites in ZnO nanowires up to approximately 4%. Incident-photon-to-current-efficiency measurements carried out on PEC cell with ZnO:N nanowire arrays as photoanodes demonstrate a significant increase of photoresponse in the visible region compared to undoped ZnO nanowires prepared at similar conditions. Mott-Schottky measurements on a representative 3.7% ZnO:N sample give a flat-band potential of -0.58 V, a carrier density of approximately 4.6 x 10(18) cm(-3), and a space-charge layer of approximately 22 nm. Upon illumination at a power density of 100 mW/cm(2) (AM 1.5), water splitting is observed in both ZnO and ZnO:N nanowires. In comparison to ZnO nanowires without N-doping, ZnO:N nanowires show an order of magnitude increase in photocurrent density with photo-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 0.15% at an applied potential of +0.5 V (versus Ag/AgCl). These results suggest substantial potential of metal oxide nanowire arrays with controlled doping in PEC water splitting applications.

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The Crystal Structures of Mg3N2and Zn3N2

D.E. Partin, D.J. Williams, M. O'Keeffe (1997)

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Nanoscale Res Lett

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Nanoscale Res Lett

Title: Nanoscale Research Letters

Publisher: Springer

ISSN (Print): 1931-7573

ISSN (Electronic): 1556-276X

Publication date Collection: 2013

Publication date (Electronic): 10 May 2013

Volume: 8

Issue: 1

Page: 221

Affiliations

[1 ]Nanostructured Materials and Devices Laboratory, Nanotechnology Research Unit, School of Engineering, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus

[2 ]Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus

[3 ]Research Center of Ultrafast Science, Department of Physics, School of Physical Sciences, University of Cyprus, PO Box 20537, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus

Article

Publisher ID: 1556-276X-8-221

DOI: 10.1186/1556-276X-8-221

PMC ID: 3663681

PubMed ID: 23663554

SO-VID: d6f3fc8b-91ef-4080-b4da-c4770ded8aff

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

History

Date received : 18 December 2012

Date accepted : 18 February 2013

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