Low temperature induced red-shift in violet-blue emission from Zn(Al, Ag)O nanoparticles

ABSTRACT

To the best of our knowledge, we present the first study on temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) of Al-doped and Ag co-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) obtained by sol-gel co-precipitation. FTIR spectra revealed the presence of Zn-O, Al-O and Ag-O bonds in the respective samples. FESEM images showed spherical NPs in undoped ZnO, which were transformed into granular and rod-like structure by Al doping and subsequently Ag co-doping developed flower-like structure having pin pointed nanorods embedded in petals. Red-shift of the band-gap of ZnO was noticed which is attributed to the contribution of charge carriers by Al and Ag. The PL emission peaks got red-shifted on incorporating with Al and Ag because of the creation of extended energy level network. Reduction from room temperature to −10°C also led to a red-shift of PL emission peaks. This combined impact of doping, co-doping and temperature opens-up a new avenue of designing materials for luminescence thermometry.

KEYWORDS:

• Sol-gel co-precipitation
• al-doped zno
• ag co-doping
• red-shift
• photoluminescence

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge facilities of Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ), India, namely, Central Analytical Facility (CAF) for UV–vis, FTIR and PL measurements and Sophisticated Analytical Instrumentation Facility (SAIF) for FESEM studies. The authors are grateful to Professor R.D.K. Misra for collaboration and insightful suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).