X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Surface Layers of Faceted Zinc Oxide Nanorods
The control of the nanomaterials surface’s hydrophilic properties is of interest for various applications, including optics, photocatalysis, and spintronics. In this work, techniques for designing the defective structure of the surface layers of faceted zinc oxide nanorods during sacrificial doping with iodine by hydrothermal synthesis were considered. The features of the chemical composition of the surface of the obtained layers were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was found that peaks corresponding to the binding energy of iodine were not observed in the X-ray photoelectron spectra. An additional peak with a binding energy of 531.8 eV, corresponding to the oxygen of OH groups, was observed in the O 1s level spectrum for zinc oxide nanorods doped with iodine. During the heat treatment of the synthesized layers, iodine evaporates, which leads to a change in the surface composition and an increase in the oxygen content of the surface hydroxyl groups. A model has been proposed to explain the experimental results. It has been established that XPS techniques are effective for analyzing the defective surface structure of functional layers based on faceted zinc oxide nanorods.