Time-resolved investigation of bright visible wavelength luminescence from sulfur-doped ZnO nanowires and micropowders

Giant defect emission enhancement from ZnO nanowires through desulfurization process

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a stable, direct bandgap semiconductor emitting in the UV with a multitude of technical applications. It is well known that ZnO emission can be shifted into the green for visible light applications through the introduction of defects. However, generating consistent and efficient green emission through this process is challenging, particularly given that the chemical or atomic origin of the green emission in ZnO is still under debate. In this work we present a new method, for which we coin term desulfurization, for creating green emitting ZnO with significantly enhanced quantum efficiency. Solution grown ZnO nanowires are partially converted to ZnS, then desulfurized back to ZnO, resulting in a highly controlled concentration of oxygen defects as determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance. Using this controlled placement of oxygen vacancies we observe a greater than 40-fold enhancement of integrated emission intensity and explore the nature of this enhancement through low temperature photoluminescence experiments.

Rational design of a novel quaternary ZnO@ZnS/Ag@Ag2S nanojunction system for enhanced photocatalytic H2 production

A novel ZnO@ZnS/Ag@Ag₂S quaternary nanojunction photocatalyst has been designed for efficient solar water splitting.

ZnO-ZnS Heterojunctions: A Potential Candidate for Optoelectronics Applications and Mineralization of Endocrine Disruptors in Direct Sunlight

Simple solution combustion synthesis was adopted to synthesize ZnO-ZnS (ZSx) nanocomposites using zinc nitrate as an oxidant and a mixture of urea and thiourea as a fuel. A large thiourea/urea ratio leads to more ZnS in ZSx with heterojunctions between ZnS and ZnO and throughout the bulk; tunable ZnS crystallite size and textural properties are an added advantage. The amount of ZnS in ZSx can be varied by simply changing the thiourea content. Although ZnO and ZnS are wide band gap semiconductors, ZSx exhibits visible light absorption, at least up to 525 nm. This demonstrates an effective reduction of the optical band gap and substantial changes in its electronic structure. Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and secondary-ion mass spectrometry results show features due to ZnO and ZnS and confirm the composite nature with heterojunctions. The above mentioned observations demonstrate the multifunctional nature of ZSx. Bare ZSx exhibits a promising sunlight-driven photocatalytic activity for complete mineralization of endocrine disruptors such as 2,4-dichlorophenol and endosulphan. ZSx also exhibits photocurrent generation at no applied bias. Dye-sensitized solar cell performance evaluation with ZSx shows up to 4% efficiency and 48% incident photon conversion efficiency. Heterojunctions observed between ZnO and ZnS nanocrystallites in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy suggest the reason for effective separation of electron-hole pairs and their utilization.

Free-Standing Atomically Thin ZnO Layers via Oxidation of Zinc Chalcogenide Nanosheets

Monolayer ZnO represents a class of new two-dimensional (2D) materials that are expected to exhibit unique optoelectronic properties and applications. Here we report a novel strategy to synthesize free-standing atomically thin ZnO layers via the oxidation of hydrothermally grown ultrathin zinc chalcogenide nanosheets. With micrometer-scaled lateral size, the obtained ultrathin ZnO layer has a thickness of ∼2 nm, and the layered structure still maintained well after high temperature oxidation. The thermal treatment strongly improves the crystal quality as well without inducing cracks or pinholes in the ultrathin layers. The atomically thin ZnO layers are highly luminescent with dominant green emission. High quality white light is obtained from the mixed phosphors containing the ZnO layers, exhibiting their potential as compelling ultraviolet-excited phosphors.

Low-Temperature Solution-Processed Thiophene-Sulfur-Doped Planar ZnO Nanorods as Electron-Transporting Layers for Enhanced Performance of Organic Solar Cells

1-D ZnO represents a fascinating class of nanostructures that are significant to optoelectronics. In this work, we investigated the use of an eco-friendly, metal free in situ doping through a pure thiophene-sulfur (S) on low temperature processed (<95 °C) and annealed (<170 °C), planar 1-D ZnO nanorods (ZnRs) spin-coated as a hole-blocking and electron transporting layer (ETL) for inverted organic solar cells (iOSCs). The TEM, HRTEM, XPS, FT-IR, EDS and Raman studies clearly reveal that the thiophene-S (Thi-S) atom is incorporated on planar ZnRs. The investigations in electrical properties suggest the enhancement in conductivity after Thi-S doping on 1-D ZnRs. The iOSCs of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) and phenyl-C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT: PC₆₀BM) photoactive layer containing thiophene-S doped planar ZnRs (Thi-S-PZnRs) as ETL exhibits power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.68% under simulated AM 1.5 G, 100 mW cm^-2 illumination. The ∼47% enhancement in PCE compared with pristine planar ZnRs (PCE = 2.38%) ETL is attributed to a combination of desirable energy level alignment, morphological modification, increased conductivity and doping effect. The universality of Thi-S-PZnRs ETL is demonstrated by the highest PCE of 8.15% in contrast to 6.50% exhibited by the iOSCs of ZnRs ETL for the photoactive layer comprising of poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophene-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-ethylhexyl)-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2-carboxylate-2-6-diyl)]: phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PTB7-Th: PCB₇₁M). This enhancement in PCE is observed to be driven mainly through improved photovoltaic parameters like fill factor (ff) as well as photocurrent density (J_sc), which are assigned to increased conductivity, exciton dissociation, and effective charge extraction, while; better ohmic contact, reduced charge recombination, and low leakage current density resulted in increased V_oc.

Time-resolved and photoluminescence spectroscopy of θ-Al₂O₃ nanowires for promising fast optical sensor applications

Herein, we have demonstrated the high yield facile growth of Al2O3 nanowires of uniform morphology with different polymorph phases (e.g. γ, δ and θ) via a hydrothermal method with varying calcination temperatures. The synthesized θ-Al2O3 nanowires were well characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM/EDAX, AFM and HRTEM techniques. Microstructural analysis confirmed that the dimensions of the individual θ-Al2O3 nanowires are approximately in the ranges 5-20 nm in width and 40-150 nm in length, and the aspect ratio is up to 20. AFM results evidenced the uniform distribution of the nanowires with controlled morphology. Furthermore, UV-vis spectroscopic data reveal that the estimated optical band gap of the θ-Al2O3 nanowires was ~5.16 eV. The photoluminescence spectrum exhibits blue emission upon excitation at a wavelength of 252 nm. Time-resolved spectroscopy demonstrates that these nanowires illustrate a decay time of ~2.23 nanoseconds. The obtained photoluminescence results with a decay time of nanoseconds suggest that the θ-Al2O3 phase could be an exceptional choice for next generation fast optical sensors.

Charge transfer state emission dynamics in blue-emitting functionalized silicon nanocrystals

Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals a charge transfer state dynamics responsible for the size-independent blue emission observed from dodecylamine and ammonia functionalized silicon nanocrystals.

Novel synthetic methodology for controlling the orientation of zinc oxide nanowires grown on silicon oxide substrates

This study presents a simple method to reproducibly obtain well-aligned vertical ZnO nanowire arrays on silicon oxide (SiOx) substrates using seed crystals made from a mixture of ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH) and zinc acetate (Zn(O2CCH3)2) solution. In comparison, high levels of OH(-) concentration obtained using NaOH or KOH solutions lead to incorporation of Na or K atoms into the seed crystals, destroying the c-axis alignment of the seeds and resulting in the growth of misaligned nanowires. The use of NH4OH eliminates the metallic impurities and ensures aligned nanowire growth in a wide range of OH(-) concentrations in the seed solution. The difference of crystalline orientations between NH4OH- and NaOH-based seeds is directly observed by lattice-resolved images and electron diffraction patterns using a transmission electron microscope (TEM). This study obviously suggests that metallic impurities incorporated into the ZnO nanocrystal seeds are one of the factors that generates the misaligned ZnO nanowires. This method also enables the use of silicon oxide substrates for the growth of vertically aligned nanowires, making ZnO nanostructures compatible with widely used silicon fabrication technology.

Integration of ZnO/ZnS nanostructured materials into a cotton fabric platform

Inorganic semiconductor ZnO/ZnS nanostructures were coupled to flexible natural fibrous materials for potential applications that include wearable electronics, protective textiles, portable and flexible photovoltaic and solar cell devices.

ZnO nanoparticles applied to bioimaging and drug delivery

The last decade has seen significant achievements in biomedical diagnosis and therapy at the levels of cells and molecules. Nanoparticles with luminescent or magnetic properties are used as detection probes and drug carriers, both in vitro and in vivo. ZnO nanoparticles, due to their good biocompatibility and low cost, have shown promising potential in bioimaging and drug delivery. The recent exciting progress on the biomedical applications of ZnO-based nanomaterials is reviewed here, along with discussions on the advantages and limitations of these advanced materials and suggestions for improving methods.

A general single-pot heating method for morphology, size and luminescence-controllable synthesis of colloidal ZnO nanocrystals

Here we demonstrate a single-pot heating approach for controllable synthesis of colloidal zinc oxide nanocrystals from zinc acetylacetonate. Such single-pot heating approaches are inherently amenable to large scale production. We have systematically studied the crystallization process, investigating the growth of nanocrystals and the influence of ligands on the morphology and luminescence of ZnO nanoparticles. We show that the morphology can be tuned to produce dendritic structures, nano-needles, nano-pinecones, nanoclusters, hexagonal pyramid nanoparticles and irregularly-shaped nanoparticles by varying the surfactants and co-surfactants used in synthesis. Moreover, we investigated the effect of ligands on the defect-related photoluminescence of ZnO NPs and demonstrated blue, green, white, yellow, and orange emission. This study opens up new possibilities for the practical use of ZnO nanomaterials for optoelectronic devices and bio-imaging.

Localized surface plasmon enhanced quantum efficiency of InGaN/GaN quantum wells by Ag/SiO2 nanoparticles

Optical properties of InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well (MQW) structures with a nanolayer of Ag/SiO2 nanoparticle (NP) on top were studied. Modeling and optical absorption (OA) measurements prove that the NPs form localized surface plasmons (LSP) structure with a broad OA band peaked near 440-460 nm and the fringe electric field extending down to about 10 nm into the GaN layer. The presence of this NP LSP electrical field increases the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of the MQW structure by about 70% and markedly decreases the time-resolved PL (TRPL) relaxation time due to the strong coupling of MQW emission to the LSP mode.

Pb(core)/ZnO(shell) nanowires obtained by microwave-assisted method

In this study, Pb-filled ZnO nanowires [Pb(core)/ZnO(shell)] were synthesized by a simple and novel one-step vapor transport and condensation method by microwave-assisted decomposition of zinc ferrite. The synthesis was performed using a conventional oven at 1000 W and 5 min of treatment. After synthesis, a spongy white cotton-like material was obtained in the condensation zone of the reaction system. HRTEM analysis revealed that product consists of a Pb-(core) with (fcc) cubic structure that preferentially grows in the [111] direction and a hexagonal wurtzite ZnO-(Shell) that grows in the [001] direction. Nanowire length was more than 5 μm and a statistical analysis determined that the shell and core diameters were 21.00 ± 3.00 and 4.00 ± 1.00 nm, respectively. Experimental, structural details, and synthesis mechanism are discussed in this study.

Ecofriendly synthesis and solar photocatalytic activity of S-doped ZnO

The S-doped ZnO was prepared by new ecofriendly method, which involves simple mechanochemical synthesis followed by thermal decomposition of bisthiourea zinc oxalate (BTZO) powders. The BTZO was characterized by FTIR and TG-DTA analysis while S-doped ZnO crystallite was characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM, EDXS, and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. X-ray diffraction data suggest the single phase wurtzite structure for S-doped ZnO and the incorporation of sulfur expand the lattice constants of ZnO. Room temperature PL spectra show more number of oxygen vacancies in S-doped ZnO as compare to that of pure ZnO. Photocatalytic activity of S-doped ZnO was checked by means of solar photocatalytic degradation (PCD) of resorcinol, using a batch photoreactor. The PCD efficiency of S-doped ZnO was found to be 2 times greater than that of pure ZnO. The inherent relationship between PL intensity and photocatalytic activity of S-doped ZnO was discussed.

Quantum Dots and Their Multimodal Applications: A Review

Semiconducting quantum dots, whose particle sizes are in the nanometer range, have very unusual properties. The quantum dots have band gaps that depend in a complicated fashion upon a number of factors, described in the article. Processing-structure-properties-performance relationships are reviewed for compound semiconducting quantum dots. Various methods for synthesizing these quantum dots are discussed, as well as their resulting properties. Quantum states and confinement of their excitons may shift their optical absorption and emission energies. Such effects are important for tuning their luminescence stimulated by photons (photoluminescence) or electric field (electroluminescence). In this article, decoupling of quantum effects on excitation and emission are described, along with the use of quantum dots as sensitizers in phosphors. In addition, we reviewed the multimodal applications of quantum dots, including in electroluminescence device, solar cell and biological imaging.

Electrophotoluminescence of sol-gel derived ZnO film: effect of electric field on near-band-edge photoluminescence

The effect of electric field on near-band-edge (NBE) photoluminescence (PL) of a sol-gel derived ZnO film has been investigated via a SiO(2)/ZnO/SiOx(x < 2) double-barrier structure on Si under different forward biases. A forward current-voltage curve is characterized by a negative-differential-resistance (NDR) region, which follows a normal region. With an increase of forward bias the NBE PL of the ZnO film is enhanced in the normal region, but it is attenuated in the NDR region. The increase of forward bias also causes the NBE PL of the ZnO film to blueshift from approximately 377.6 to approximately 374.9 nm no matter how current changes. The mechanism for the effect of bias on the intensity and position of NBE PL of the ZnO film is discussed.

Physical and Electrical Performance of Vapor-Solid Grown ZnO Straight Nanowires

Physical and electrical properties of wurtzitic ZnO straight nanowires grown via a vapor-solid mechanism were investigated. Raman spectrum shows four first-order phonon frequencies and a second-order Raman frequency of the ZnO nanowires. Electrical and photoconductive performance of individual ZnO straight nanowire devices was studied. The results indicate that the nanowires reported here are n-type semi-conductors and UV light sensitive, and a desirable candidate for fabricating UV light nanosensors and other applications.

Facile chemical approach to ZnO submicrometer particles with controllable morphologies

We have developed a simple wet-chemistry approach to fabricating ZnO submicrometer particles with unique morphologies including rings, bowls, hemispheres, and disks. The size and morphology of the particles can be conveniently tailored by varying the concentrations of the zinc precursor. The reaction temperature, pH, and concentration of ammonia are also found to play critical roles in directing the formation of these particle morphologies. These submicrometer particles exhibit strong white-light emission upon UV excitation as a result of the presence of surface defect states resulting from the fabrication method and synthesis conditions.