Optical properties of ZnO/BaCO 3 nanocomposites in UV and visible regions
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NANO EXPRESS
Open Access
Optical properties of ZnO/BaCO3 nanocomposites in UV and visible regions Ali Khorsand Zak1,2*, Abdul Manaf Hashim1 and Majid Darroudi3
Abstract Pure zinc oxide and zinc oxide/barium carbonate nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs and ZB-NPs) were synthesized by the sol–gel method. The prepared powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis), Auger spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD result showed that the ZnO and BaCO3 nanocrystals grow independently. The Auger spectroscopy proved the existence of carbon in the composites besides the Zn, Ba, and O elements. The UV–Vis spectroscopy results showed that the absorption edge of ZnO nanoparticles is redshifted by adding barium carbonate. In addition, the optical parameters including the refractive index and permittivity of the prepared samples were calculated using the UV–Vis spectra. Keywords: Optical; Composite materials; Ceramic materials PACS: 81.05.Dz; 78.40.Tv; 42.70.-a.
Background Nanotechnology has the potential to create many new devices with a wide range of applications in the fields of medicine [1], electronics [2], and energy production [3]. The increased surface area-to-volume ratios and quantum size effects are the properties that make these materials potential candidates for device applications. These properties can control optical properties such as absorption, fluorescence, and light scattering. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is one of the famous metal oxide semiconductors with a wide bandgap (3.36 eV) and large excitation binding energy. These special characteristics make it suitable to use in many applications, such as cancer treatments [4], optical coating [5], solar cells [3], and gas sensors [6]. In fact, doping, morphology, and crystallite size play an important role on the optical and electrical properties of ZnO nanostructures, which can be controlled by methods of the nanostructure growth. Therefore, many methods have been created to prepare ZnO nanostructures including sol–gel [7], precipitation [8], combustion [9], microwave [10], solvothermal [11], spray pyrolysis [12], hydrothermal [13,14], ultrasonic [15], and * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia 2 Nanotechnology Laboratory, Esfarayen University of Technology, Esfarayen 96619-98195, North Khorasan, Iran Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [16,17]. As mentioned above, the doping of ZnO with selective elements offers an effective method to enhance and control its electrical and optical properties. The effects of several elements on the optical and electrical properties of ZnO material have been investigated. For example, Au2+ [18], Ce3+ [19], Eu3+ [20], In3+ [21], and Mg2+ [22,23] have been used in order to control the optical properties; Mn2+ [24], Cr2+ [25], Co2+, Ni2+, Fe3+, Cu2+, and V5+ [26] have been used t
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