Work Function Tuning in Hydrothermally Synthesized Vanadium-Doped MoO3 and Co3O4 Mesostructures for Energy Conversion Devices

Applied Sciences

Francesca Tajoli¹  Federico Barbon¹  Silvia Gross¹  Matteo Crisci¹  Francesco Lamberti¹  Pietro Dalle Feste¹  Teresa Gatti²  Marco Salerno³  Mirko Prato³  Filippo Drago⁴ 

[1] Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, Via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy;Institute of Physical Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35390 Giessen, Germany;Materials Characterization Facility, Italian Institute of Technology, Via Morego 30, 16163 Genova, Italy;Nanochemistry, Italian Institute of Technology, Via Morego 30, 16163 Genova, Italy;

关键词: metal oxide;    doping;    semiconductor;    work function tuning;    energy device;   

DOI  :  10.3390/app11052016

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The wide interest in developing green energy technologies stimulates the scientific community to seek, for devices, new substitute material platforms with a low environmental impact, ease of production and processing and long-term stability. The synthesis of metal oxide (MO) semiconductors fulfils these requirements and efforts are addressed towards optimizing their functional properties through the improvement of charge mobility or energy level alignment. Two MOs have rising perspectives for application in light harvesting devices, mainly for the role of charge selective layers but also as light absorbers, namely MoO₃ (an electron blocking layer) and Co₃O₄ (a small band gap semiconductor). The need to achieve better charge transport has prompted us to explore strategies for the doping of MoO₃ and Co₃O₄ with vanadium (V) ions that, when combined with oxygen in V₂O₅, produce a high work function MO. We report on subcritical hydrothermal synthesis of V-doped mesostructures of MoO₃ and of Co₃O₄, in which a tight control of the doping is exerted by tuning the relative amounts of reactants. We accomplished a full analytical characterization of these V-doped MOs that unambiguously demonstrates the incorporation of the vanadium ions in the host material, as well as the effects on the optical properties and work function. We foresee a promising future use of these materials as charge selective materials in energy devices based on multilayer structures.

【 授权许可】

Unknown