Photocatalytic Performance of Aluminum -Doped Graphene-like ZnO (g-AZO) Monolayer
Abstract
The graphene-like zinc oxide (g-ZnO) monolayer (ML) is a popular two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor. However, its applications are restricted in the photocatalytic water splitting reaction due to low visible absorption and wide optical band gap. Here, in this work, we studied the electronic structure of Al-doped graphene-like ZnO (g-AZO) ML using Density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The photocatalytic performance parameters such as bandgap, band edge levels, and absorption coefficient of g-AZO ML are studied under the application of biaxial strain varying from -10% to +10%. Our calculations show that g-AZO ML has a suitable band gap, band edge positions, and absorption coefficient in the visible range at ε = +9% and +10% tensile strain for photocatalytic water splitting reaction.
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