Synthesis and characterization of PbS/ZnO thin film for photocatalytic hydrogen production

In this work, PbS/ZnO thin film was designed in order to assess the photocatalytic hydrogen production from the water splitting. A p-type PbS thin film was prepared by chemical bath deposition onto a glass substrate, followed by an n-type ZnO thin film deposition by RF magnetron sputtering. The structural and morphological characterization was carried out by grazing angle x-ray diffraction (GA-XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively, while the optical properties were studied using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by quantifying the hydrogen production under UV light irradiation using gas chromatography. The results showed a higher photocatalytic hydrogen production of PbS/ZnO thin film (738 mol cm(-2)h(-1)) compared to PbS (3.35 mu molcm(-2)h(-1)) and ZnO (2.45 mu mol cm(-2)h(-1)) thin films. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) test showed the synergistic effect between PbS and ZnO thin films for the generation and transport of the charge carriers. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved,