Title: Nd co-doping effect on optical properties of ZnO:Al nanoparticles

Authors: H-Y. He

Addresses: College of Material Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, 710021, China

Abstract: Nd-doped ZnO:Al nanoparticles with various molar ratios of Nd/Al (0-0.0079) were synthesised by a sol-gel route. The synthesised powders were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, and luminescent spectrophotometry. The XRD analysis indicated that the average particle size first slightly increased and then decreased as increasing Nd/Al ratio, whereas lattice parameter increased as increasing Nd/Al ratio. The FE-SEM analysis revealed a uniform granular particle morphology and the average particle sizes that first increases and then decreases with the increase of Nd content. The diffused reflection absorbance spectra in UV-visible light range revealed that smallest absorbance and widest optical band gap were observed as molar ratio of Nd/Al is 0.035. Moreover, the molar ratio of Nd/Al = 0.017 and 0.035 produced obviously enhanced visible luminescence efficiency originated from the increase of transparency and the formation of a new visible emission centre due to the defect introduced by Nd co-doping.

Keywords: ZnO; zinc oxide; aluminium; Nd co-doping; neodymium; optical properties; nanoparticles; sol-gel; nanotechnology; particle size; lattice parameter; luminescence.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.2016.075491

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 2016 Vol.52 No.3/4, pp.216 - 225

Received: 09 Dec 2014
Accepted: 03 Mar 2015
Published online: 27 Mar 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article