X pert panalytical pro x ray diffractometer

A range of substrates were used in this work; uncoated soda-lime glass (SLG), fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) coated SLG “TEC 6” glass (NSG Ltd., St. Helens, UK) and 0.1 mm Mo foil substrates (Advent, 99.95% pure, Oxford, UK). All substrates were washed with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and de-ionized (DI) water, then ultrasonically cleaned in DI water prior to deposition. 250 nm (0.5 Ω/sq) Mo films were grown onto the glass substrates via Direct Current (DC) magnetron sputtering at 400 °C using an Ar plasma. 6–8 μm CdTe (Alfa Aesar, 99.99% pure, Lancashire, UK) was deposited via CSS in an N₂ ambient at a variety of pressures and at source and substrate temperatures of 650 °C and 550 °C respectively.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was carried out using a Veeco Innova Bruker atomic force microscope (Bruker, CA, USA) in contact mode. XRD measurements were performed using a PANalytical X’pert PRO X-ray diffractometer (PANalytical B. V., Eindhoven, The Netherlands) at room temperature, using CuKα1 line as the X-ray source. SEM images were taken using a JSM-7001F microscope from JEOL with EDX spectrometer (JEOL, Tokyo, Japan). CL spectra was measured with a Hitachi SU-70 SEM (Hitachi, Tokyo, Japan) operating at 12 keV together with a Gatan MonoCL system (Gatan, CA, USA) for CL detection. The pixel dwell time for the panchromatic was 4 s.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement was carried out using a Kratos Analytical AXIS HIS spectrometer (Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan) with a monochromatized Al Ka X-ray source (1486.6 eV photons) to verify the polydopamine coating on the clay. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was carried out using a TGA Q2950 (TA Instruments, New Castle, DE, USA) under an atmosphere environment where the samples were heated from 25 °C to 140 °C and kept isothermally for 40 min before being further heated at a rate of 10 °C/min to 850 °C. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was carried out using a Perkin-Elmer 2000 spectrometer (Perkin-Elmer, Waltham, MA, USA) scanning in the range of 400 cm⁻¹ to 4000 cm⁻¹ with a resolution of 4 cm⁻¹. Crystal structure was determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) on a PANalytical X’Pert PRO X-ray diffractometer (Almelo, The Netherlands) with Cu K radiation (λ = 0.154 nm). D-clay was pounded and grinded into powder form before the XRD measurement. Samples were scanned with a scanning rate of 2°/min from 2° to 35° in ambience. The average D-spacing was then calculated using the Bragg’s law based on the measured diffraction angle.

The crystal structure of the investigated materials was detected using a PANalytical X’Pert Pro X-ray diffractometer (Malvern Panalytical Ltd., Malvern, UK) equipped with Ni-filtered Cu Kα₁ radiation (Kα₁ = 1.54060 Å, U = 40 kV, I = 30 mA) in the 2θ range of 5°–70°. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were parsed by Match! software version 3.7.0.124. Energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis was carried out using an FEI Nova NanoSEM 230 scanning electron microscope (SEM, Hillsboro, OR, USA) equipped with an EDS spectrometer (EDAX GenesisXM4) and operating at an acceleration voltage in the range 3.0–15.0 kV and spots at 2.5–3.0 were observed. The Fourier-transformed infrared spectra were carried out by the Thermo Scientific Nicolet iS50 FT-IR spectrometer (Waltham, MA, USA) equipped with an automated beam splitter exchange system (iS50 ABX containing DLaTGS KBr detector), built-in all-reflective diamond ATR module (iS50 ATR), Thermo Scientific Polaris™ and the HeNe laser was used as an infrared radiation source. Absorption spectra were collected by the Agilent Cary 5000 spectrophotometer (Agilent, 5301 Stevens Creek Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95051, USA), employing a spectral bandwidth (SBW) with a spectral resolution of 0.25 nm in the visible and ultraviolet range and recorded at room temperature.