Photoelectrochemistry of semiconductor ZnO particulate films

This paper reports on thin films of ZnO semiconductor that have been prepared on electrode surfaces by coating them with quantized ZnO colloids. The photoelectrochemical properties of semiconductor particulate films have been evaluated with both steady-state and laser pulse excitations. The ZnO film behaves like an n-type semiconductor with a flatband potential of -0.6 V vs. SCE. The incident-photon conversion efficiency at 320 nm is 15%. The generation of photovoltage at these electrodes has been time-resolved with coulostatic laser-flash-photolysis experiments