Synthesis and enhanced photoelectric performance of Au/ZnO hybrid hollow sphere

Abstract

A series of Au/ZnO hybrid hollow-sphere films were successfully prepared by “hexane–water” interfacial self-assembly of polystyrene (PS)/Au/ZnO nanocomposite spheres as building blocks followed by annealing treatment, and then used to fabricate nanodevices. The morphology and structure of the PS/Au/ZnO nanospheres and the as-transformed Au/ZnO hybrid hollow spheres were characterized by TEM, SEM, HRTEM, XRD, etc. It was found that the maximum responsivity (R_λ) and photocurrent of Au NPs decorated ZnO hollow-sphere nanofilm based nanodevice in the study showed more than 10 times enhancement when illuminated by 340 nm UV light, as compared with that of pure ZnO hollow spheres. Further results demonstrate that high performance of the Au/ZnO hybrid hollow-sphere film based devices are attributed to the strong absorption and scattering of incident light and improved interfacial charge separation owing to the unique structure of the building block.