ZnO nanostructures: analysis and characterization by the electrospinning technique
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
ZnO nanostructures: analysis and characterization by the electrospinning technique Y. Al-Douri 1,2 Received: 19 October 2020 / Accepted: 16 November 2020 # Qatar University and Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The electrospinning technique has been employed to synthesize ZnO nanostructures. The significant characterization and analysis of grain and crystallite sizes have been inspected by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) that are unequivocally influenced by varying the flow rates of solution precursor: 2, 4, and 6 8 μL/min. Meanwhile, the flow rate could affect the morphology and topography of ZnO nanostructures. The optical properties of photoluminescence (PL) are investigated. The bulk modulus, refractive index, and optical dielectric constant are calculated using specific empirical models to verify the experimental results. Keywords ZnO . Nanostructure . Structural . Optical
1 Introduction The superior performance of TiO2 has been greatly examined for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) in comparison with ZnO-based DSSCs. Up to now, lead-free materials such as ZnO [1], 0.755(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3–0.065BaTiO3–0.18SrTiO3 (BNT–BT–ST) [2], polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) [3], and (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 [4] are well distinguished for photodetector applications. Over and above, ZnO provides alternative unique properties [5], intrinsically n-type semiconductors and reluctance to high temperatures that have developed solar cells [6–8], gas sensor application [9, 10], and piezoelectricbased devices [11–15]. The function of ZnO in solar cells is to convert the photon energy through electron-excitation mechanism basing on differences in energy band gap. Therefore, ZnO is not only able to absorb light and generate excited electrons, but also capable of transferring electrons when subjected to mechanical loads from outside.
* Y. Al-Douri [email protected] 1
Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Center (NANOCAT), University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Bahcesehir University, 34349 Besiktas, Istanbul, Turkey
Also, the ability of energy conversion for ZnO is still limited, so this is in hybrid application signify to be excited scope for further exploration. From the previous works [16–18], nano- to miniaturized scale devices/gadgets have shown advantages in their designs due to the need of one active area; therefore, its turn is simple for the fabrication process. The ZnO nanostructures prepared by the electrospinning technique [19, 20] are appended on the conductive transparent glass by the screen-printing method. The novelty given in the current work is different than others; the structural properties of SEM, AFM, and XRD are investigated to scout the grain and crystallite sizes besides lattice constant, bulk modulus, roughness, and thickness. And, the optical properties of photoluminescence (PL) and energy gap are investigated to explore the sui
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