Structural, optical properties and photocatalytic activity of spin-coated CuO thin films

The semiconductor metal oxide CuO films have been fabricated using spin coating techniques. The prepared CuO thin films were annealed at different temperatures and characterized by an x-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), FTIR, UV–vis, and fluorescence spectrometer. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) patterns revealed the polycrystalline nature of CuO with the monoclinic crystal structure. SEM analysis of CuO films endorsed the particle-like spherical shape structure. The CuO thin films have shown high optical absorption with a narrow bandgap. The band gap values were evaluated from Tauc’s plots and these values were found to be in the range of 1.63 to 1.72 eV. At an excitation of 325 nm, the CuO films display characteristic photoluminescence (PL) emission in the UV and visible regions. Furthermore, the CuO thin films show enhanced photocatalytic performance towards the degradation of organic dyes under visible light.