Preparation of transparent conducting ZnO:Al films on glass substrates by ultrasonic spray technique

Transparent conductive Al doped ZnO thin films were deposited by ultrasonic spray technique.Conditions of preparation have been optimized to get good quality.A set of aluminum（Al） doped ZnO（between 0 and 5 wt%） thin films were grown on glass substrate at 350℃.Nanocrystalline films with a hexagonal wurtzite structure show a strong（002） preferred orientation.The maximum value of grain size G = 32.05 nm is attained of Al doped ZnO film with 3 wt%.All the films have low absorbance in the visible region,thus the films are transparent in the visible region;the band gap energy increased from 3.10 to 3.26 eV when Al concentration increased from 0 to 3 wt%.The electrical conductivity of the films increased from 7.5 to 15.2（Ω·cm）^（-1）.So the best results are achieved in Al doped ZnO film with 3 wt%.

Sprayed separation membranes: A systematic review and prospective opportunities

Membrane separation technology has been taken up for use in diverse applications such as water treatment,pharmaceutical,petroleum,and energy-related industries.Compared with the design of membrane materials,the innovation of membrane preparation technique is more urgent for the development of membrane separation technology,because it not only affects physicochemical properties and separation performance of the fabricated membranes,but also determines their potential in industrialized application.Among the various membrane preparation methods,spray technique has recently gained increasing attention because of its low cost,rapidity,scalability,minimum of environmental burden,and viability for nearly unlimited range of materials.In this Review article,we summarized and discussed the recent developments in separation membranes using the spray technique,including the fundamentals,important features and applications.The present challenges and future considerations have been touched to provide inspired insights for developing the sprayed separation membranes.

Sonochemically assisted synthesis of nano HMX

Nanotechnology has played an influential role in improving the energetic content without subsiding the performance of high energy materials in the current era.In this work,HMX(octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine)nanoparticles were prepared by sonochemically assisted solvent-antisolvent spray technique focussing the reduction in its size so as to improve its energetic properties.In order to fabricate nano HMX various parameters such as different solvents and temperature were investigated.Sonication is one of the strategies recently explored in this regard;so time dependent study of sonication using probe sonicator was performed.It has been postulated that bubble formed during sonication when collapses generate high temperature and many nucleation sites which leads to the formation of uniform spherical particles with small size and fast transition phase.XRD studies depicted phase transformation from a toβas a result of sonication.The TEM images revealed that the rise in the sonication time resulted into decrease in the particle size from 300 to 10 nm.Differential scanning calorimetry(DSC)was employed to determine the heat release of the samples and enhancement in the heat release with the decrease in the particle size.A decrease in the spark sensitivity was observed from 2 J(regular HMX)to 50 mJ(nano HMX).

Reply to Comments on "Structural,Optical,and Electrical Properties of Zn-Doped CdO Thin Films Fabricated by a Simplified Spray Pyrolysis Technique'' by K.Usharani and A.R.Balu published in Acta Metall.Sin.(Engl.Lett.) 28(1),64–71(2015)

Following are the comments for the queries raised by Prof. Pawel E. Tomaszewski on our published paper entitled ＂Structural, Optical, and Electrical Properties of Zn-Doped CdO Thin Films Fabricated by a Simplified Spray Pyrolysis Technique＂ by K. Usharani and A.R. Balu published in Acta Metall. Sin.

Photoelectrocatalytic activity of immobilized Yb doped WO3 photocatalyst for degradation of methyl orange dye

Pure WOand Yb:WOthin films have been synthesized by spray pyrolysis technique. Effect of Yb doping concentration on photoelectrochemical, structural, morphological and optical properties of thin films are studied. X-ray diffraction analysis shows that all thin films are polycrystalline nature and exhibit monoclinic crystal structure. The 3 at% Yb:WOfilm shows superior photoelectrochemical（PEC） performance than that of pure WOfilm and it shows maximum photocurrent density（Iph= 1090 μA/cm） having onset potentials around +0.3 V/SCE in 0.01 M HClO. The photoelectrocatalytic process is more effective than that of the photocatalytic process for degradation of methyl orange（MO） dye. Yb doping in WOphotocatalyst is greatly effective to degrade MO dye. The enhancement in photoelectrocatalytic activity is mainly due to the suppressing the recombination rate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The mineralization of MO dye in aqueous solution is studied by measuring chemical oxygen demand（COD） values.

Structural, optical and electrical properties of zinc oxide thin films deposited by a spray pyrolysis technique

Zinc oxide（ZnO） thin films were deposited on glass substrates by spray pyrolysis technique decomposition of zinc acetate dihydrate in an ethanol solution with 30 m L of deposition rate, the ZnO thin films were deposited at two different temperatures： 300 and 350℃. The substrates were heated using the solar cells method.The substrate was R217102 glass, whose size was 30×17.5×1 mm^3. The films exhibit a hexagonal wurtzite structure with a strong（002） preferred orientation. The higher value of crystallite size is attained for sprayed films at 350℃, which is probably due to an improvement of the crystallinity of the films at this point. The average transmittance of obtain films is about 90%–95%, as measured by a UV–vis analyzer. The band gap energy varies from 3.265 to 3.294 e V for the deposited Zn O thin film at 300 and 350℃, respectively. The electrical resistivity measured of our films are in the order 0.36 Ω·cm.

Comments on "Structural,Optical,and Electrical Properties of Zn-Doped CdO Thin Films Fabricated by a Simplified Spray Pyrolysis Technique'' by K.Usharani and A.R.Balu Published in Acta Metall.Sin.(Engl.Lett.) 28(1),64–71(2015)

The commented paper [1] presents the results on structural, optical, and electrical properties of Zn-doped CdO thin films. Unfortunately, there are several mistakes and errors not found by any of referees. It is necessary to show these mistakes or misleading statements to avoid their use in the future papers by authors and other peoples.

Correlation between electrical conductivity–optical band gap energy and precursor molarities ultrasonic spray deposition of ZnO thin films

ZnO thin films were deposited using the simple, flexible and cost-effective spray ultrasonic technique at different precursor molarities values. The films were deposited on a glass substrate at 350℃. This paper is to present a new approach to the description of correlation between electrical conductivity and optical gap energy with precursor molarity of ZnO thin films. The ZnO films exhibit higher electrical n-type semiconductors, whose band gap energy increased from 3.08 to 3.37 eV with an increasing of precursor molarity of 0.05 to 0.1 M. The maximum value of electrical conductivity of the films is 7.96 （S2.cm）-1 obtained in the ZnO thin film for precursor molarity 0.125 M. The correlation between the electrical and the optical properties with the precursor molarity suggests that the electrical conductivity of the films is predominantly influenced by the band gap energy and the precursor molarity. The measurement of the electrical conductivity of the films with correlation is equal to the experimental with the error is about 1% in the higher conductivity.

The effect of the film thickness and doping content of SnO2:F thin films prepared by the ultrasonic spray method

This paper reports on the effects of film thickness and doping content on the optical and electrical properties of fluorine-doped tin oxide. Tin （Ⅱ） chloride dehydrate, ammonium fluoride dehydrate, ethanol and HC1 were used as the starting materials, dopant source, solvent and stabilizer, respectively. The doped films were deposited on a glass substrate at different concentrations varying between 0 and 5 wt% using an ultrasonic spray technique. The SnO2：F thin films were deposited at a 350 ℃ pending time （5, 15, 60 and 90 s）. The average transmission was about 80%, and the films were thus transparent in the visible region. The optical energy gap of the doped films with 2.5 wt% F was found to increase from 3.47 to 3.89 eV with increasing film thickness, and increased after doping at 5 wt%. The decrease in the Urbach energy of the SnO2：F thin films indicated a decrease in the defects. The increase in the electrical conductivity of the films reached maximum values of 278.9 and 281.9 （Ω.cm）-1 for 2.5 and 5 wt% F, respectively, indicating that the films exhibited an n-type semiconducting nature. A systematic study on the influence of film thickness and doping content on the properties of SnO2：F thin films deposited by ultrasonic spray was reported.

Ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition of SnSe and SnSe_2 using a single spray solution

Thin films of SnSe and SnSe2 have been deposited using the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis（USP） technique.To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of the deposition of SnSe and SnSe2 thin films using a single spray solution.The use of a single spray solution for obtaining both a p-type material,SnSe,and an n-type material,SnSe2,simplifies the deposition technique.The SnSe2 thin films have a bandgap of 1.1 eV and the SnSe thin films have a band gap of 0.9 eV.The Hall measurements were used to determine the resistivity of the thin films.The SnSe2 thin films show a resistivity of 36.73 Ωcm and n-type conductivity while the SnSe thin films show a resistivity of 180 Ωcm and p-type conductivity.

Structural,morphological,optical and photoluminescent properties of spray-deposited ZnSe thin film

ZnSe thin films are successfully deposited by spray pyrolysis deposition technique. Deposited thin films are characterized by X-ray diffraction study, and it reveals that spray-deposited ZnSe thin films are polycrystalline with hexagonal crystal structure. Surface morphology is carried out by scanning electron microscopy. It shows cotton-like morphology, and optical properties, such as absorbance, transmittance, reflectance, band gap, refrac- tive index, extinction coefficient are studied. Photoluminescence shows strong emission at 497 nm. Also, spray- deposited ZnSe thin films are hydrophilic in nature, which is shown by contact angle meter.

Influence of growth time on crystalline structure,conductivity and optical properties of ZnO thin films

This paper examines the growth of ZnO thin films on glass substrate at 350 ℃ using an ultrasonic spray technique. We have investigated the influence of growth time ranging from 1 to 4 min on structural, optical and electrical properties of ZnO thin films. The as-grown films exhibit a hexagonal structure wurtzite and are （002） oriented. The maximum value of grain size G = 63.99 nm is attained for ZnO films grown at 2 min. The average transmittance is about 80%, thus the films are transparent in the visible region. The optical gap energy is found to increase from 3.26 to 3.37 eV with growth time increased from 1 to 2 min. The minimum value of electrical resistivity of the films is 0.13 Ω.cm obtained at 2 min. A systematic study on the influence of growth time on the properties of ZnO thin films deposited by ultrasonic spray at 350 ℃ has been reported.

Preparation of n-type semiconductor SnO_2 thin films

We studied fluorine-doped tin oxide on a glass substrate at 350℃using an ultrasonic spray technique. Tin（Ⅱ） chloride dehydrate,ammonium fluoride dehydrate,ethanol and NaOH were used as the starting material, dopant source,solvent and stabilizer,respectively.The SnO_2：F thin films were deposited at 350℃and a pending time of 60 and 90 s.The as-grown films exhibit a hexagonal wurtzite structure and have（101） orientation.The G = 31.82 nm value of the grain size is attained from SnO_2：F film grown at 90 s,and the transmittance is greater than 80%in the visible region.The optical gap energy is found to measure 4.05 eV for the film prepared at 90 s, and the increase in the electrical conductivity of the film with the temperature of the sample is up to a maximum value of 265.58（Ω·cm）^（-1）,with the maximum activation energy value of the films being found to measure 22.85 meV,indicating that the films exhibit an n-type semiconducting nature.