Structural, optical, photocurrent and solar driven photocatalytic properties of vertically aligned samarium doped ZnO nanorod arrays

Vertically aligned, Samarium (Sm) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod (NR) arrays have been synthesized by simple vapour transport process. The samples were characterized by FESEM, XRD, PL, Raman spectroscopy and XPS. FESEM results showed that incorporation of Sm caused decrease in length of NRs from 25 μm to 9 μm and influence the alignment of NRs. The photocatalytic activities of methylene blue (MB) under natural sunlight irradiation results showed that the enhancement of photocatalytic efficiency from 83.02 to 97.3% for Sm doped (0-6%) ZnO NRs arrays and decreased 95.72% for higher concentration 8% of Sm. The photocurrent measurement shows photosensitivity increased from 1.085, 1.093, 1.268, 3.270 and 1.486 for ZnO NR arrays and Sm doped (2-6%) ZnO NR arrays and decreased for 8% Sm doped ZnO NR arrays. This result revealed that doping of Sm could enhance the visible-light-driven PC properties of ZnO.