Comparative temperature and surfactants effect on the morphologies of FeSe thin films fabricated by AACVD from a single source precursor with mechanism and photocatalytic activity

This manuscript presents the fabrication of FeSe thin films by aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition of a single source ferrocene incorporated selenourea precursor (1-benzoyl-3-(4-ferrocenylphenyl)selenourea) at three different temperatures (450 °C, 500 °C and 550 °C) and three different concentrations of two different surfactants (triton and span) by keeping all the other conditions of film fabrication constant to have the glimpse about the morphological changes at different temperatures and different concentrations of the surfactants separately. Fabricated thin films have been characterized by PXRD, SEM and EDS. Cyclic voltammetry and UV-vis spectroscopy have been used to find out the mechanism of interaction between the surfactants and the precursor. Methylene blue degradations studies of a representative thin film have been carried out in the presence of direct sunlight with UV-vis spectroscopy. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.