ZnO Nanofibers Doped with Ga, In and Er Fabricated with Electrospinning Technique
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ZnO Nanofibers Doped with Ga, In and Er Fabricated with Electrospinning Technique Aurangzeb Khan1, Wojciech M. Jadwisienczak2, Saima N. Khan1, and Martin E. Kordesch1 1 Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 251B Clippinger labs, Athens, OH, 45701 2 School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 45701 ABSTRACT ZnO nanofibers doped with Ga, In and Er metals have been fabricated by the electrospinning technique. The average diameter of the fibers was in the range of 0.5-2 µm and the length up to several meters. After spinning fabrication step the samples were dried out and annealed at 900 °C in air. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra measured for undoped and In- and Ga-doped ZnO fiber samples exhibit only a strong near-band edge (NBE) emission at ~380 nm with a very weak green band at 525 nm. In contrast, the PL spectrum of Er-doped ZnO fibers shows a very weak NBE and strong green emission band at ~550 nm at 300 K. The electrospinning mechanism used for the fabrication of nanofibers was found to be productive, simple and easy to implement regardless of the doping type and concentration. INTRODUCTION Quasi one-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials, including nanowires, have attracted intensive research interest due to their large specific surface areas and quantum confinement effects [1]. These nanostructures are expected to play a critical role both as interconnects and functional units in the fabrication of nanoscale electronic, optoelectronic, and electromechanical devices [1,2]. Several different methods have already been employed to synthesize 1D nanostructures, including but no limited to physical and chemical vapor deposition [3-5] solvothermal technique [6], solution phase route [7], and electrodeposition technique [8]. One of the problems with nanowires is that the aspect ratio (length to diameter) is not large, making spatial manipulation and assembly difficult. Electrospinning, on the other hand, is a useful technique for fabrication of nano- and microfibers with diameters as small as a few tens of nanometers and a few meters long [9]. We have made an effort to fabricate ZnO nano- and microfibers from various starting material sources using a home build electrospinning apparatus. In this report we concentrate on fabrication of undoped ZnO and In-, Ga-, Er-doped ZnO fibers, their morphology and room temperature luminescence.
EXPERIMENTAL Undoped ZnO nano- and microfibers were fabricated from ZnO polycrystalline powder. In selected experiments ZnO powder (Alfa Elser Inc., 325 mesh) was replaced by the metalic Zn powder (Metheson Coleman & Bell Inc., Ohio, metallic Zn dust). Doping was done through mixing ZnO or Zn powders with In2O3 and Ga2O3 powders or erbium acetate hydrate (Er(CH[3]COO)[3]×4H[2]O) compound. To prepare the aqueous solution suitable for electrospinning selected powders were mixed in 10 mL of chloroform and vigorously stirred for 3 hrs in order to obtain a homogeneous mixture. The details of solution preparation are summarized below: 1.
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