Bifunctional ZnO nanowire/ZnSnO3 heterojunction thin films for photoelectrochemical water splitting and photodetector applications

• ZnO/ZTO nanostructures have been deposited via robust, cost-effective, and scalable solution-based methods. • Incident photon-to-current efficiency increased two-folds with building ZnO/ZTO thin-films. • The responsivity of the photodetector increased from 0.5 to 1.7 A.W −1 after ZTO deposition on 1D-ZnO. • The detectivity of the photodetector increased from 0.5 × 10 12 to 1.0 × 10 12 Jones with ZTO layer. Robust, cost-effective, and scalable solution based chemical bath deposition and ultrasonic spray pyrolysis methods have been applied to fabricate one dimensional (1D) zinc oxide nanowire (ZnO NW) and zinc stannate (ZTO) heterojunction thin films to be employed in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting and UV photodetector (PD) systems. PEC performance evaluation in a three-electrode cell confirmed the positive effect of ZTO on ZnO NW-based photoanode enhancing incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE%) two-folds of the pristine ZnO NW at 367 nm wavelength. Responsivity (Rs) and detectivity (D*) values of the pristine ZnO NW-based PD have been increased from 0.5 A.W −1 and 0.5 × 10 12 Jones to 1.7 A.W −1 and 1.0 × 10 12 Jones with ZTO layer, respectively.