Investigation of some properties of undoped and P2O5, CdO, and ZnO doped V2O5 thin films deposited by the Thermionic Vacuum Arc (TVA)

Undoped and P2O5, CdO and ZnO doped V2O5 thin films were deposited by Thermionic Vacuum Arc (TVA) plasma method and analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Structural, surface, optical and antibacterial analyses were performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), and Kirby-Bauer test. The produced plasmas were also analyzed by Optical emission spectrometry (OES). The undoped V2O5 thin films were amorphous, with a thickness of 92-204 nm, a surface roughness of 0.4-1.8 nm and an optical band gap of 3.20-3.84 eV. V2O5-P2O5 thin films deposited on microscope glass and high density polyethylene (HDPE) were found to be amorphous like the glass form and had a roughness of 0.3-0.9 nm. CdO-doped V2O5-P2O5 was synthesized and made into glass and the thin films were found to have different structural properties according to the Raman results, although they gave a similar amorphous structure to the synthesized glass. The structural and surface properties of pure Cd thin films were investigated and proved to be antibacterial against E. coli and L. innocua bacteria and CdO thin films were polycrystalline with crystallite sizes of 6.89-14.10 nm. While thin films deposited by doping V2O5 with Zn at different ratios were permeable in the visible region, V2O5-Zn thin films produced as layered thin films in separate crucibles were not permeable in the visible region and showed more antibacterial effect against S. aureus bacteria than doped V2O5-Zn thin films. In the TVA system, layered thin films were produced by placing V2O5 and ZnO in different crucibles at the same time. While the forbidden energy range was calculated as 3.63 eV in the V2O5-ZnO thin film mixed 50-50% by mol%, two bands of 2.4 eV and 3.48 eV were observed in thin films with ZnO deposited on V2O5, and two bands of 2.48 eV and 3.15 eV were observed in thin films with V2O5 deposited on ZnO.