TY - JOUR
T1 - Synthesis and morphological modification of semiconducting Mg(Zn)Al(Ga)-LDH/ITO thin films
AU - Valente, Jaime S.
AU - López-Salinas, Esteban
AU - Prince, Julia
AU - González, Ignacio
AU - Acevedo-Peña, Prospero
AU - Del Ángel, Paz
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo , and also carried out in the frame of the project CONACyT (Project CB-2008-01-0105655). P. Acevedo-Peña thanks CONACyT for a PhD scholarship.
PY - 2014/9/15
Y1 - 2014/9/15
N2 - Layered double hydroxide (LDH) thin films with different chemical compositions (MgZnAl, MgZnGa, MgGaAl) and varying thicknesses were easily prepared by sol-gel method followed by dip-coating. Films were chemically uniform, transparent and well adhered to a conductive indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. Structure, chemical composition and morphology of the thin films were characterized by XRD-GADDS, SEM-EDS and AFM. Additionally, the semiconducting properties of all the prepared films were studied through the Mott-Schottky relationship; such properties were closely related to the chemical compositions of the film. The films were characterized after electrochemical treatment and important modifications regarding surface morphology, particle and crystal sizes were observed. An in-depth study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of several different electrochemical treatments on the morphology, particle size distribution and crystal size of LDH thin films. Upon electrochemical treatment, the films' surface became smooth and the particles forming the films were transformed from flaky open LDH platelets to uniformly distributed close-packed LDH nanoparticles.
AB - Layered double hydroxide (LDH) thin films with different chemical compositions (MgZnAl, MgZnGa, MgGaAl) and varying thicknesses were easily prepared by sol-gel method followed by dip-coating. Films were chemically uniform, transparent and well adhered to a conductive indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. Structure, chemical composition and morphology of the thin films were characterized by XRD-GADDS, SEM-EDS and AFM. Additionally, the semiconducting properties of all the prepared films were studied through the Mott-Schottky relationship; such properties were closely related to the chemical compositions of the film. The films were characterized after electrochemical treatment and important modifications regarding surface morphology, particle and crystal sizes were observed. An in-depth study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of several different electrochemical treatments on the morphology, particle size distribution and crystal size of LDH thin films. Upon electrochemical treatment, the films' surface became smooth and the particles forming the films were transformed from flaky open LDH platelets to uniformly distributed close-packed LDH nanoparticles.
KW - Electrochemical techniques
KW - Nanostructures
KW - Semiconductors
KW - Sol-gel growth
KW - Thin films
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84902384279&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.matchemphys.2014.05.009
DO - 10.1016/j.matchemphys.2014.05.009
M3 - Artículo
SN - 0254-0584
VL - 147
SP - 339
EP - 348
JO - Materials Chemistry and Physics
JF - Materials Chemistry and Physics
IS - 1-2
ER -