Title: Wet cation exchange route to semiconductor alloys: the case study of Mg_xZn_1-xO

Authors: Keyan Li; Pengcheng Yan; Chengbo Zhang; Dongfeng Xue

Addresses: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China; State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China

Abstract: We developed a novel cation exchange method to prepare the alloyed semiconductors. A series of self-assembled magnesium doped zinc oxide (Mg_xZn_1-xO) particles were synthesised by varying the molar ratios of Mg precursor Mg₅(CO₃)₄(OH)₂•4H₂O to Zn precursor ZnAc₂•4H₂O from 1:1 to 3:1 at different cation exchange time. Powder X-ray Diffraction (XRD) indicates that the samples are a mixture of hexagonal and cubic phases. The UV-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectra show that the band gap of Mg_xZn_1-xO particles can be readily tuned by optimising the cation exchange time and the molar ratio of precursors. The morphology of Mg_xZn_1-xO particles was observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).

Keywords: wet cation exchange; band gap; UV-visible absorption; semiconductor alloys; zinc oxide; ZnO; magnesium salts; nanocrystals; microstructure; nanotechnology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2013.050877

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2013 Vol.10 No.1/2, pp.22 - 29

Published online: 07 Dec 2012 *

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