The characterisation of aerosol assisted CVD conducting, photocatalytic indium doped zinc oxide films

Indium doped, and undoped, zinc oxide films were deposited using aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) at atmospheric pressure on glass substrates. Electrical measurements (I–V) showed a reduction in resistivity following the addition of indium, and XRD analysis revealed an associated switch to c-axis preferred crystal orientation. The ability of the films to oxidise organic material on their surface was analysed using stearic acid as the model contaminant under ultra-violet (UV, 365 nm) irradiation. The In-doped films displayed a greater rate of organic decomposition, which we attribute to the formation of a platelet surface structure having a larger surface area than the undoped films, on which the UV generated electrons and holes may react to form active photocatalytic species. In addition we suggest that the switch to c-axis crystal orientation may reduce the electron–hole pair recombination rate at the grain boundaries, due to an improvement in crystallinity and related reduction in carrier scattering losses, leading to an increase in photocatalytic organic decomposition rate.