Title: Elaboration and characterisation of (Al, V) co-doped nanosized zinc oxide aerogel

Authors: J. El Ghoul, A. Alaya, L. El Mir, C. Barthou, M. Saadoun, S. Alaya

Addresses: Laboratoire de Physique des Materiaux et des Nanomateriaux Appliquee a l'Environnement, Faculte des Sciences de Gabes, Cite Erriadh Manara Zrig 6072 Gabes, Tunisie. ' Laboratoire de Physique des Materiaux et des Nanomateriaux Appliquee a l'Environnement, Faculte des Sciences de Gabes, Cite Erriadh Manara Zrig 6072 Gabes, Tunisie. ' Laboratoire de Physique des Materiaux et des Nanomateriaux Appliquee a l'Environnement, Faculte des Sciences de Gabes, Cite Erriadh Manara Zrig 6072 Gabes, Tunisie. ' Institut des NanoSciences de Paris (INSP) UMR CNRS 7588, Universites Paris 6 et 7, Campus Boucicaut, 140 rue de Lourmel – F-75015 Paris. ' Centre de Recherches et des Technologies de l'Energie, Laboratoire de Photovoltaique et des Semiconducteurs, BP 95, 2050 Hammam-Lif, Tunisie. ' College of Science, Physics Department, King Faisal University, P.O. Box 400, 31982 Hofuf, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: In this study, we report the elaboration of vanadium-aluminium co-doped ZnO nanoparticles prepared by a sol-gel processing technique. Aluminium and vanadium doping concentrations of 1 at% and 10 at% respectively have been investigated. The obtained nanopowder was characterised by various techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. After thermal treatment at 500°C in air, the powder with an average particle size of 30 nm presents a strong luminescence band in the visible range. The PL band energy position presents a small blue shift with the increase of measurement temperature. Different possible attributions of this emission band will be discussed.

Keywords: zinc oxide; ZnO nanoparticles; sol-gel; optical materials; photoluminescence; nanomaterials; nanotechnology; vanadium; aluminium; nanopowders.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNBM.2009.027722

International Journal of Nano and Biomaterials, 2009 Vol.2 No.1/2/3/4/5, pp.273 - 278

Published online: 08 Aug 2009 *

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