Photovoltaic amorphous feroxyhyte nanostructures synthesized by atmospheric AC microplasma

Aysha Shamaki; Chiedozie Benjamin Ogueri; Seham Alomary; Mobolaji Zondode; Marieme Ndaw; Jie Hou; Souvik Pramanik; Sabin Pokharel; Solomon Tadesse; Sz-Chian Liou; Xiaobo Du; Mikel Tucker; Kit Sze; Jiang Li; Abdellah Lisfi; Manfred Wuttig; Greg Severn; Yong-Le Pan; Yucheng Lan

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ad0c73

Photovoltaic amorphous feroxyhyte nanostructures synthesized by atmospheric AC microplasma

Nanotechnology. 2023 Dec 4;35(8). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ad0c73.

Authors

Aysha Shamaki¹, Chiedozie Benjamin Ogueri¹, Seham Alomary¹, Mobolaji Zondode¹, Marieme Ndaw¹, Jie Hou², Souvik Pramanik³, Sabin Pokharel¹, Solomon Tadesse⁴, Sz-Chian Liou⁵, Xiaobo Du⁶, Mikel Tucker¹, Kit Sze¹, Jiang Li⁷, Abdellah Lisfi¹, Manfred Wuttig⁸, Greg Severn⁹, Yong-Le Pan¹⁰, Yucheng Lan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Engineering Physic, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD 21251, United States of America.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States of America.
³ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States of America.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD 21251, United States of America.
⁵ Advanced Imaging & Microscopy Laboratory, Maryland NanoCenter, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States of America.
⁶ Department of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun, People's Republic of China.
⁷ Department of Civil Engineering, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD 21251, United States of America.
⁸ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States of America.
⁹ Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92110, United States of America.
¹⁰ DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland 20783, United States of America.

PMID: 37963407
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ad0c73

Abstract

Feroxyhite (δ-FeOOH) nanomaterials were successfully synthesized through the atmospheric AC microplasma method at room temperature from ferrous sulfate aqueous solutions. Various syntheses conditions, including electric voltage, electric field strength, ferrous concentration, hydrogen peroxide concentration, and reaction duration, were systematically investigated. The synthesized products were characterized through x-ray diffraction, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, infra-red spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. The bandgap of the produced materials were strongly dependent of the ferrous concentration while the product ratio was dependent on all experimental conditions. The synthesis mechanism was thoroughly discussed. The synthesized nanomaterials were amorphous nanospheres, showing superparamagnetic properties at room temperature. The synthesized oxyhydroxide is a potential photovoltaic material besides its reported applications in photocatalysts and supercapacitors. The application of this synthesis technique could be extended to synthesize other oxy-hydroxide nanomaterials for renewable energy applications facilely, scalablely, cost-effectively, and environmentally.

Keywords: nanomaterials; oxyhydroxide; photovoltaic; plasma; synthesis.