Issue 20, 2021

About defect phenomena in ZnO nanocrystals

Abstract

ZnO nanocrystals are receiving renewed attraction due to their multifunctional properties. Selective enhancement and tuning of their optical and electrical properties are essential for achieving novel devices with accurate sensing and conducting capabilities. The nature and type of intrinsic defects that occur in ZnO influence these properties. In this work, we investigate the intrinsic defect structure of ZnO via electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and correlate the results with existing computational works. Mainly, the defects are analysed by taking the microscopic defect structure of the lattice into account. The results manifest the core–shell model of the defect structure in ZnO. By default, specifically for nanocrystals, oxygen vacancies localise on the surface, while zinc vacancies localise in the core. The investigations in this report demonstrate that the concentration of the intrinsic defects and their position can be tuned merely by changing the size of the nanocrystal. Additionally, the UV, green, orange and red emissions can be tuned by nanocrystal's size and post-annealing treatments.

Graphical abstract: About defect phenomena in ZnO nanocrystals

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
10 فرؤری 2021
Accepted
22 مارٕچ 2021
First published
24 مارٕچ 2021

Nanoscale, 2021,13, 9160-9171

About defect phenomena in ZnO nanocrystals

S. Nadupalli, S. Repp, S. Weber and E. Erdem, Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 9160 DOI: 10.1039/D1NR00943E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements