The 1,2-propanediol-sensing properties of one-dimension Tb2O3-modified ZnO nanowires synthesized by water-glycerol binary thermal route

One-dimension Tb₂O₃-modified ZnO nanowires were synthesized via water-glycerol binary thermal route. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns demonstrated that the Tb₂O₃-modified ZnO was pure phase with high crystallinity. The Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed the chemical compositions of Tb₂O₃-modified ZnO. The images of field-emission electron microscopy (FESEM) indicated that the Tb₂O₃-modified ZnO was one-dimension nanowires with a diameter of ∼40-100 nm. N₂ adsorption/desorption measurements and BET analysis were used to revealed the specific surface area and pore size of Tb₂O₃-modified ZnO. The images of Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM) further showed that the highly uniform heterojunctions had been successfully obtained. The sensitivity and response/recovery time of 3 at% Tb₂O₃-modified ZnO tested at 200 °C were ∼123 and 73s/50s to 50 ppm 1,2-propanediol, respectively. In addition, the detection limit was as low as 1 ppm. Under UV irradiation, the sensitivity was further improved to 152 while the response/recovery time was shortened to 67s/23s. The morphology of one-dimension Tb₂O₃-modified ZnO nanowires, the increase of oxygen-deficient region in ZnO and the formation of p-n heterojunction enhanced the properties of 1,2-propanediol-sensing synergistically.

Synthesis of rare-earth doped ZnO nanorods and their defect–dopant correlated enhanced visible-orange luminescence

Rare-earth doped sub-10 nm diameter ZnO nanorods show defect–dopant assisted enhanced visible-orange luminescence and also display multicolour rare-earth emission.