Research on fabrication and optical properties of doped nano-ZnO microspheres

Abstract

Nano-ZnO microspheres with dopant (0.5%Y, 1%Y, 0.5%Ni, 1%Ni）were successfully prepared by hydrothermal method. The influences of these doping different elements and concentrating on the structure, morphology and optical property of nano-ZnO were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), photoluminescence (PL) and ultraviolet-visible absorption spectrum (UV-Vis). The results show that the crystallinities of nano-ZnO decreased with the introduction of doped atoms, the morphologies of nano-ZnO changed from rod-shaped and spherical mixtures to granular and spherical mixtures, and the morphologies again became spherical ones with the increase of Y ions concentration. Moreover, nano-ZnO was obtained in rod-shaped and spherical mixtures with the increase of Ni ions concentration. The results of optical property indicated that the absorption spectra have a clear steep absorption edge at 384 nm, and nano-ZnO microspheres showed a strong ultraviolet emission peak in nearly 387 nm. These results suggested that nano-ZnO microspheres are promising optoelectronic materials to ultraviolet photoelectron devices.

Keywords:

• ZnO
• hydrothermal method
• doped
• microspheres

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61664008), the National Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (2017JM6102), the Scientific and Technological Innovation Team (2017CXTD-01), the Project of Research and Production (2017cxy05), the Project of Yan′an University (YDQ2017-11).