Band-gap engineering in Co-/Cu-co-doped ZnO nanorods unlocks superior charge-storage kinetics
I. Boukhoubza (University Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah, National Institute of Materials Physics)
O. El khouja (National Institute of Materials Physics)
M. Achehboune (Namur Institute of Structured Matter, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University)
M. A. Basyooni-M. Kabatas (Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie, Selçuk University, TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
I. Derkaoui (University Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah)
I. Enculescu (National Institute of Materials Physics)
E. Matei (National Institute of Materials Physics)
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Abstract
Co-/Cu-co-doped ZnO nanorods are synthesized by electrochemical deposition to investigate the effect of co-doping on their structural, optical, electronic, and electrochemical properties. XRD, Raman, SEM, and photoluminescence analyses reveal that Co/Cu incorporation modifies the ZnO lattice, increases defect-related states, and reduces the band gap from 3.11 to 2.15 eV. Density functional theory calculations further show that Co 3d and Cu 3d states appear near the Fermi level and contribute to the observed band-gap narrowing. Electrochemical measurements indicate that the co-doped nanorods exhibit the lowest charge-transfer resistance and the highest areal capacitance among the samples studied. Together, these results show that Co/Cu co-doping improves charge-transfer kinetics in ZnO nanorods and highlights co-doping as an effective strategy for tuning oxide electrodes for energy-storage applications.
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