Cu-doped ZnO nanorod arrays: the effects of copper precursor and concentration

• Published in: Nanoscale research letters Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 199
• Main Authors: Babikier, Musbah, Wang, Dunbo, Wang, Jinzhong, Li, Qian, Sun, Jianming, Yan, Yuan, Yu, Qingjiang, Jiao, Shujie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer New York 01.05.2014; Springer Nature B.V; BioMed Central Ltd; Springer
• Subjects: Chemistry and Materials Science; Materials Science; Molecular Medicine; Nano Express; Nanochemistry; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Nanotechnology and nanomaterials (NANO-2013); Zinc oxide; Nanostructures; Hydrothermal crystal growth; Doping; Photoluminescence
• ISSN: 1931-7573; 1556-276X; 1556-276X
• DOI: 10.1186/1556-276X-9-199

Cu-doped ZnO nanorods have been grown at 90°C for 90 min onto a quartz substrate pre-coated with a ZnO seed layer using a hydrothermal method. The influence of copper (Cu) precursor and concentration on the structural, morphological, and optical properties of ZnO nanorods was investigated. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the nanorods grown are highly crystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure grown along the c -axis. The lattice strain is found to be compressive for all samples, where a minimum compressive strain of −0.114% was obtained when 1 at.% Cu was added from Cu(NO 3 ) 2 . Scanning electron microscopy was used to investigate morphologies and the diameters of the grown nanorods. The morphological properties of the Cu-doped ZnO nanorods were influenced significantly by the presence of Cu impurities. Near-band edge (NBE) and a broad blue-green emission bands at around 378 and 545 nm, respectively, were observed in the photoluminescence spectra for all samples. The transmittance characteristics showed a slight increase in the visible range, where the total transmittance increased from approximately 80% for the nanorods doped with Cu(CH 3 COO) 2 to approximately 90% for the nanorods that were doped with Cu(NO 3 ) 2 .