Zinc oxide thin film fabricated by thermal evaporation method for water splitting application

The aim of this paper is to fabricate zinc oxide (ZnO) photoelectrode by a modified thermal evaporation system for water splitting application. At first, zinc thin film has been deposited on bare fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate by a modified thermal evaporation system with chamber pressure 0.05 mbar, source temperature 700°C, source substrate distance 3 cm and deposition time 5 min. For obtaining ZnO thin film, the prepared zinc film is annealed at 500°C for 2 hours in atmosphere. The prepared ZnO film is characterized and investigated the photoelectrochemical performance and suitability for splitting of water.