Investigations on the Growth Mechanism of Nanostructured ZnO: Shedding Light on the Effect of Al3+ Doping
| Autor: | Lahoucine Atourki, K. Bouabid, Manale Battas, Ahmed Ihlal, M. Regragui, Mohammed Abd-Lefdil |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Materials science
Dopant Scanning electron microscope 020209 energy Doping chemistry.chemical_element 02 engineering and technology Surfaces and Interfaces Zinc 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Surfaces Coatings and Films Absorption edge chemistry Chemical engineering 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering Nanorod Texture (crystalline) 0210 nano-technology Wurtzite crystal structure |
| Zdroj: | Surface Engineering and Applied Electrochemistry. 57:1-9 |
| ISSN: | 1934-8002 1068-3755 |
| DOI: | 10.3103/s1068375521010075 |
| Popis: | Herein the growth mechanism of an un-doped zinc oxide (i-ZnO) and an Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) was investigated using electrochemical techniques. Zinc and aluminum nitrates precursors were used in an aqueous bath solution, under a fixed potential of about –1.0 V, at 80°C. The variations of the morphological, structural, and optical properties of AZO were investigated in terms of Al3+ concentrations ranging from 0 to 4 atomic percentage in the starting solution. The X-ray diffraction patterns showed the hexagonal wurtzite structure for all samples. The effect of the lateral growth mechanism of AZO instead of the longitudinal growth process of ZnO was confirmed by calculating the texture coefficient and by studying the surface morphology under high magnification via scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the morphology evolved from hexagonal flat nanorods into a mixture of tapered hexagonal nanorods and nanosheets, to larger nanosheets by adding aluminum ions dopants. All films demonstrated a transmittance of about 80% in the visible range and exhibited a slight red shift in the absorption edge with Al3+ doping. The optical band gap of AZO nanosheets was found to be lower than that of i-ZnO nanorods. These findings provide fundamental understanding of the growth mechanism and shape control of a nanostructured zinc oxide. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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