Vanadium-doped ZnO nanorods: magnetic and enhanced H2 properties

• Published in: Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing Materials science & processing, 2022-12, Vol.128 (12), Article 1084
• Main Authors: Bathalavaram, Poornaprakash, Puneetha, Peddathimula, Ramu, Singiri, Jeon, Jooyoung, Kwon, Min-Woo, Lee, Dong-Yeon, Mallem, Siva Pratap Reddy, Kim, Young Lae, Park, Kwi-Il
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied physics; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Condensed Matter Physics; Doping; Hydrogen evolution; Hydrogen production; Machines; Magnetic properties; Manufacturing; Materials science; Nanorods; Nanotechnology; Optical and Electronic Materials; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Processes; Rapid Communications; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Vanadium; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy; Zinc oxide
• ISSN: 0947-8396; 1432-0630
• DOI: 10.1007/s00339-022-06219-z

The production of one-dimensional nanorods (NRs) has been capturing decent curiosity due to the peculiar electronic, spintronic, and hydrogen evolution properties. Consequently, herein, diluted magnetic semiconducting ZnO:V (0, 1, and 2 at%) NRs have been prepared through a typical hydrothermal method. SEM images depicted that the prepared samples belonged to nanorods. V ion incorporation into the ZnO matrix was confirmed through XRD, Raman, and XPS studies. A trivial decreasing of optical band gap with the V doping was determined via Kubelka–Munk plots. The doping enhances the paramagnetic nature of ZnO as function of V doping. Importantly, these NRs were measured for H 2 production through H 2 O splitting by the solar simulator. The ZnO:V (2 at%) portrayed the best H 2 production capability (25,188 µmol h −1  g −1 ) in 5 h than other samples. The plausible reasons behind the improved H 2 evolution could be discussed in detail. Till date, this is the first ever report on H 2 evolution of ZnO:V nanorods.