Effects of growth variables and post-growth annealing on the optical, structural and electrical properties of magnetron-sputtered Ga0.04Mg0.10Zn0.86O films are characterized in detail. It is observed that films grown from pure oxygen plasma showed high resistivity, ~102 Ω·cm, whereas films grown in Ar plasma showed much lower resistivity, 2.0 × 10− 2 ~ 1.0 × 10−1 Ω·cm. Post-growth annealing significantly improved the electrical resistivity, to 4.3 ~ 9.0 × 10−3 Ω·cm for the vacuum annealed samples and to 1.3 ~ 3.0 × 10−3 Ω·cm for the films annealed in Zn vapor. It is proposed that these phenomena may be attributed to the improved crystalline quality and to changes in the defect chemistry. It is suggested that growth within oxygen environments leads to suppression of oxygen vacancy (Vo) donors and formation of Zn vacancy (VZn) acceptors, resulting in highly resistive films. After annealing treatment, the activation of Ga donors is enhanced, Vo donors are annihilated, and crystalline quality is improved, increasing the electron mobility and the concentration. After annealing in Zn vapor, Zn interstitial donors are introduced, further increasing the electron concentration.

Nanostructured ZnO materials have been studied extensively because of their functional properties. This paper presents a composite material of zinc oxide quantum dots (ZnO QDs) and porous carbon using a one-step carbonization process. The direct carbonization of a metal–organic complex generates mesostructured porous carbon with a homogeneous distribution of ZnO QDs. The structural and morphological properties are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The resulting ZnO QDs@porous carbon composite delivers a high specific capacity of 990 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1, 357 mAh g−1 at 2 A g−1, and high reversibility when evaluated as an anode for lithium ion batteries.

In this study, (GaN)1-x(ZnO)x solid solution nanoparticles with a high zinc content are prepared by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and subsequent nitridation. The structure and morphology of the samples are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The characterization results show a phase transition from the Zn and Ga-based oxides (ZnO or ZnGa2O4) to a (GaN)1-x (ZnO)x solid solution under an NH3 atmosphere. The effect of the precursor solution concentration and nitridation temperature on the final products are systematically investigated to obtain (GaN)1-x(ZnO)x nanoparticles with a high Zn concentration. It is confirmed that the powder synthesized from the solution in which the ratio of Zn and Ga was set to 0.8:0.2, as the initial precursor composition was composed of about 0.8-mole fraction of Zn, similar to the initially set one, through nitriding treatment at 700oC. Besides, the synthesized nanoparticles exhibited the typical XRD pattern of (GaN)1-x(ZnO)x, and a strong absorption of visible light with a bandgap energy of approximately 2.78 eV, confirming their potential use as a hydrogen production photocatalyst.

Dynamic behavior of piezoelectric ZnO nanowires is investigated using finite element analyses (FEA) on FE models constructed based on previous experimental observations in which nanowires having aspect ratios of 1:2. 1:31, and 1:57 are obtained during a hydrothermal process. Modal analyses predict that nanowires will vibrate in lateral bending, uniaxial elongation/contraction, and twisting (torsion), respectively, for the three ratios. The natural frequency for each vibration mode varies depending on the aspect ratio, while the frequencies are in a range of 7.233 MHz to 3.393 GHz. Subsequent transient response analysis predicts that the nanowires will behave quasi-statically within the load frequency range below 10 MHz, implying that the ZnO nanowires have application potentials as structural members of electromechanical systems including nano piezoelectric generators and piezoelectric dynamic strain sensors. When an electric pulse signal is simulated, it is predicted that the nanowires will deform in accordance with the electric signal. Once the electric signal is removed, the nanowires exhibit a specific resonance-like vibration, with the frequency synchronized to the signal frequency. These predictions indicate that the nanowires have additional application potential as piezoelectric actuators and resonators.

In the present investigation we show the effect of Al doping on the length, size, shape, morphology, and sensing property of ZnO nanorods. Effect of Al doping ultimately leads to tuning of electrical and optical properties of ZnO nanorods. Undoped and Al-doped well aligned ZnO nanorods are grown on sputtered ZnO/SiO2/Si (100) pre-grown seed layer substrates by hydrothermal method. The molar ratio of dopant (aluminium nitrate) in the solution, [Al/Zn], is varied from 0.1 % to 3 %. To extract structural and microstructural information we employ field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques. The prepared ZnO nanorods show preferred orientation of ZnO <0001> and are well aligned vertically. The effects of Al doping on the electrical and optical properties are observed by Hall measurement and photoluminescence spectroscopy, respectively, at room temperature. We observe that the diameter and resistivity of the nanorods reach their lowest levels, the carrier concentration becomes high, and emission peak tends to approach the band edge emission of ZnO around 0.5% of Al doping. Sensing behavior of the grown ZnO nanorod samples is tested for H2 gas. The 0.5 mol% Al-doped sample shows highest sensitivity values of ~ 60 % at 250 ˚C and ~ 50 % at 220 ˚C.

In this study, partially dry transfer is investigated to solve the problem of fully dry transfer. Partially dry transfer is a method in which multiple layers of graphene are dry-transferred over a wet-transferred graphene layer. At a wavelength of 550 nm, the transmittance of the partially dry-transferred graphene is seen to be about 3% higher for each layer than that of the fully dry-transferred graphene. Furthermore, the sheet resistance of the partially drytransferred graphene is relatively lower than that of the fully dry-transferred graphene, with the minimum sheet resistance being 179 Ω/sq. In addition, the fully dry-transferred graphene is easily damaged during the solution process, so that the performance of the organic photovoltaics (OPV) does not occur. In contrast, the best efficiency achievable for OPV using the partially dry-transferred graphene is 2.37% for 4 layers.

We prepare ZnO nanoparticles by environmentally friendly synthesis using Cyathea nilgiriensis leaf extract. Various phytochemical constituents are identified through the assessment of ethanolic extract of plant Cyathea nilgiriensis holttum by GC-MS analysis. The formation of ZnO nanoparticles is confirmed by FT-IR, XRD, SEM-EDX, TEM, SAED and PSA analysis. TEM observation reveals that the biosynthesized ZnO nanopowder has a hexagonal structure. The calculated average crystallite size from the high intense plane of (1 0 1) is 29.11 nm. The particle size, determined by TEM analysis, is in good agreement with that obtained by XRD analysis. We confirm the formation of biomolecules in plant extract by FT-IR analysis and propose a possible formation mechanism of ZnO nanoparticles. Disc diffusion method is used for the analyses of antimicrobial activity of ZnO nanoparticles. The synthesized ZnO nanoparticles exhibit antimicrobial effect in disc diffusion experiments. The biosynthesized ZnO nanoparticles display good antibacterial performance against B. subtilis (Gram-positive bacteria) and K. pneumonia (Gram-negative bacteria). Bio-synthesized nanoparticles using green method are found to possess good antimicrobial performance.

Synthesizing one-dimensional nanostructures of oxide semiconductors is a promising approach to fabricate highefficiency photoelectrodes for hydrogen production from photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. In this work, vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays are successfully synthesized on fluorine-doped-tin-oxide (FTO) coated glass substrate via seed-mediated hydrothermal synthesis method with the use of a ZnO nanoparticle seed layer, which is formed by thermally oxidizing a sputtered Zn metal thin film. The structural, optical and PEC properties of the ZnO nanorod arrays synthesized at varying levels of Zn sputtering power are examined to reveal that the optimum ZnO nanorod array can be obtained at a sputtering power of 20W. The photocurrent density and the optimal photocurrent conversion efficiency obtained for the optimum ZnO nanorod array photoanode are 0.13 mA/cm2 and 0.49 %, respectively, at a potential of 0.85 V vs. RHE. These results provide a promising avenue to fabricating earth-abundant ZnO-based photoanodes for PEC water oxidation using facile hydrothermal synthesis.

ZnO thin films are of considerable interest because they can be customized by various coating technologies to have high electrical conductivity and high visible light transmittance. Therefore, ZnO thin films can be applied to various optoelectronic device applications such as transparent conducting thin films, solar cells and displays. In this study, ZnO rod and thin films are fabricated using aqueous chemical bath deposition (CBD), which is a low-cost method at low temperatures, and environmentally friendly. To investigate the structural, electrical and optical properties of ZnO for the presence of citrate ion, which can significantly affect crystal form of ZnO, various amounts of the citrate ion are added to the aqueous CBD ZnO reaction bath. As a result, ZnO crystals show a nanorod form without citrate, but a continuous thin film when citrate is above a certain concentration. In addition, as the citrate concentration increases, the electrical conductivity of the ZnO thin films increases, and is almost unchanged above a certain citrate concentration. Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cell substrates are used to evaluate whether aqueous CBD ZnO thin films can be applicable to real devices. The performance of aqueous CBD ZnO thin films shows performance similar to that of a sputter-deposited ZnO:Al thin film as top transparent electrodes of CIGS solar cells.

This study describes the doping effect of Yb2O3 on microstructure, electrical and dielectric properties of ZnO-V2O5- MnO2-Nb2O5 (ZVMN) ceramic semiconductors sintered at a temperature as low as 900°C. As the doping content of Yb2O3 increases, the ceramic density slightly increases from 5.50 to 5.54 g/cm3; also, the average ZnO grain size is in the range of 5.3-5.6 μm. The switching voltage increases from 4,874 to 5,494 V/cm when the doping content of Yb2O3 is less than 0.1 mol%, whereas further doping decreases this value. The ZVMN ceramic semiconductors doped with 0.1 mol% Yb2O3 reveal an excellent nonohmic coefficient as high as 70. The donor density of ZnO gain increases in the range of 2.46-7.41×1017 cm−3 with increasing doping content of Yb2O3 and the potential barrier height and surface state density at the grain boundaries exhibits a maximum value (1.25 eV) at 0.1 mol%. The dielectric constant (at 1 kHz) decreases from 592.7 to 501.4 until the doping content of Yb2O3 reaches 0.1 mol%, whereas further doping increases it. The value of tanδ increases from 0.209 to 0.268 with the doping content of Yb2O3.

ZnO thin-films are grown on a p-Si(111) substrate by RF sputtering. The effects of growth temperature and O2 mixture ratio on the ZnO films are investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and roomtemperature photoluminescence (PL) measurements. All the grown ZnO thin films show a strong preferred orientation along the c-axis, with an intense ultraviolet emission centered at 377 nm. However, when O2 is mixed with the sputtering gas, the half width at half maximum (FWHM) of the XRD peak increases and the deep-level defect-related emission PL band becomes pronounced. In addition, an n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction diode is fabricated by photolithographic processes and characterized using its current-voltage (I-V) characteristic curve and photoresponsivity. The fabricated n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction diode exhibits typical rectifying I-V characteristics, with turn-on voltage of about 1.1 V and ideality factor of 1.7. The ratio of current density at ± 3 V of the reverse and forward bias voltage is about 5.8 × 103, which demonstrates the switching performance of the fabricated diode. The photoresponse of the diode under illumination of chopped with 40 Hz white light source shows fast response time and recovery time of 0.5 msec and 0.4 msec, respectively.

Zinc oxide(ZnO) micro/nanocrystals are grown via thermal evaporation of ZnO powder mixed with Mn powder, which is used as a reducing agent. The ZnO/Mn powder mixture produces ZnO micro/nanocrystals with diverse morphologies such as rods, wires, belts, and spherical shapes. Rod-shaped ZnO micro/nanocrystals, which have an average diameter of 360 nm and an average length of about 12 μm, are fabricated at a temperature as low as 800 °C due to the reducibility of Mn. Wireand belt-like ZnO micro/nanocrystals with length of 3 μm are formed at 900 °C and 1,000 °C. When the growth temperature is 1,100 °C, spherical shaped ZnO crystals having a diameter of 150 nm are synthesized. X-ray diffraction patterns reveal that ZnO had hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. A strong ultraviolet emission peak and a weak visible emission band are observed in the cathodoluminescence spectra of the rod- and wire-shaped ZnO crystals, while visible emission is detected for the spherical shaped ZnO crystals.

A heterogeneous photocatalytic system is attracting much interest for water and air purification because of its reusability and economical advantage. Electrospun nanofibers are also receiving immense attention for efficient photocatalysts due to their ultra-high specific surface areas and aspect ratios. In this study, ZnO nanofibers with average diameters of 71, 151 and 168 nm are successfully synthesized by facile electrospinning and a subsequent calcination process at 500 ℃ for 3 h. Their crystal structures, morphology features and optical properties are systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, UV-Vis and photoluminescence spectroscopies. The photocatalytic activities of the ZnO nanofibers are evaluated by the photodegradation of a rhodamine B aqueous solution. The results reveal that the diameter of the nanofiber, controlled by changing the polymer content in the precursor solution, plays an important role in the photocatalytic activities of the synthesized ZnO nanofibers.

Finite element analyses are carried out to understand the piezoelectric behaviors of ZnO nanowires. Three different types of ZnO nanowires, with aspect ratios of 1:2. 1:31, and 1:57, are analyzed for uniaxial compression, pure bending, and buckling. Under the uniaxial compression with a strain of 1.0 × 10−4 as the reference state, it is predicted that all three types of nanowires develop the same magnitude of the piezoelectric fields, which suggests that longer nanowires exhibit higher piezoelectric potential. However, this prediction is not in agreement with the experimental results previously reported in the literature. Such discrepancy is understood when the piezoelectric behaviors under bending and buckling are considered. When only the strain field due to bending is present in bending or buckling, the antisymmetric nature of the through-thickness stain distribution indicates that two piezoelectric fields, the same in magnitude and opposite in sign, develop along the thickness direction, which cancels each other out, resulting in a zero net piezoelectric field. Once additional strain contribution due to axial deformation is superposed on the bending, such field cancelling is compensated for due to the axial component of the piezoelectric field. Such numerical predictions seem to explain the reported experimental results while providing a guideline for the design of nanowire-based piezoelectric devices.

ZnO micro/nanocrystals are formed by a vapor transport method. Mixtures of ZnO and TiO powders are used as the source materials. The TiO powder acts as a reducing agent to reduce the ZnO to Zn and plays an important role in the formation of ZnO micro/nanocrystals. The vapor transport process is carried out in air at atmospheric pressure. When the weight ratios of TiO to ZnO in the source material are lower than 1:2, no ZnO micro/nanocrystals are formed. However, when the ratios of TiO to ZnO in the source material are greater than 1:1, the ZnO crystals with one-dimensional wire morphology are formed. In the room temperature cathodoluminescence spectra of all the products, a strong ultraviolet emission centered at 380 nm is observed. As the ratio of TiO to ZnO in the source material increases from 1:2 to 1:1, the intensity ratio of ultraviolet to visible emission increases, suggesting that the crystallinity of the ZnO crystals is improved. Only the ultraviolet emission is observed for the ZnO crystals prepared using the source material with a TiO/ZnO ratio of 2:1.

ZnO crystals with different morphologies are synthesized through thermal evaporation of the mixture of Zn and Cu powder in air at atmospheric pressure. ZnO crystals with wire shape are synthesized when the process is performed at 1,000 oC, while tetrapod-shaped ZnO crystals begin to form at 1,100 oC. The wire-shaped ZnO crystals form even at 1,000 oC, indicating that Cu acts as a reducing agent. As the temperature increases to 1,200 oC, a large quantity of tetrapod-shaped ZnO crystals form and their size also increases. In addition to the tetrapods, rod-shaped ZnO crystals are observed. The atomic ratio of Zn and O in the ZnO crystals is approximately 1:1 with an increasing process temperature from 1,000 oC to 1,200 oC. For the ZnO crystals synthesized at 1,000 oC, no luminescence spectrum is observed. A weak visible luminescence is detected for the ZnO crystals prepared at 1,100 oC. Ultraviolet and visible luminescence peaks with strong intensities are observed in the luminescence spectrum of the ZnO crystals formed at 1,200 oC.

We report on the fabrication and photoelectrochemical(PEC) properties of a Cu2O thin film/ZnO nanorod array oxide p-n heterojunction structure with ZnO nanorods embedded in Cu2O thin film as an efficient photoelectrode for solardriven water splitting. A vertically oriented n-type ZnO nanorod array was first prepared on an indium-tin-oxide-coated glass substrate via a seed-mediated hydrothermal synthesis method and then a p-type Cu2O thin film was directly electrodeposited onto the vertically oriented ZnO nanorods array to form an oxide semiconductor heterostructure. The crystalline phases and morphologies of the heterojunction materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy as well as Raman scattering. The PEC properties of the fabricated Cu2O/ZnO p-n heterojunction photoelectrode were evaluated by photocurrent conversion efficiency measurements under white light illumination. From the observed PEC current density versus voltage (J-V) behavior, the Cu2O/ZnO photoelectrode was found to exhibit a negligible dark current and high photocurrent density, e.g., 0.77 mA/cm2 at 0.5 V vs Hg/HgCl2 in a 1 mM Na2SO4 electrolyte, revealing an effective operation of the oxide heterostructure. In particular, a significant PEC performance was observed even at an applied bias of 0 V vs Hg/ HgCl2, which made the device self-powered. The observed PEC performance was attributed to some synergistic effect of the p-n bilayer heterostructure on the formation of a built-in potential, including the light absorption and separation processes of photoinduced charge carriers.

Li-incorporated ZnO thin films were deposited by using ultrasonic-assisted spray pyrolysis deposition (SPD) system. To investigate the effect of Li-incorporation on the performance of ZnO thin films, the structural, electrical, and optical properites of the ZnO thin films were analyzed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emssion scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Hall effect measurement, and UV-Vis spectrophotometry with variation of the Li concentraion in the ZnO sources. Without incorporation of Li element, the ZnO surface showed large spiral domains. As the Li content increases, the size of spiral domains decreased gradually, and finally formed mixed small grain and one-dimensional nanorod-like structures on the surface. This morphological evolution was explained based on an anti-surfactant effect of Li atoms on the ZnO growth surface. In addition, the Li-incorporation changed the optical and electrical properties of the ZnO thin films by modifying the crystalline defect structures by doping effects.

Activated carbon (AC) was modified by ammonium persulphate or nitric acid, respectively. AC and the modified materials were used as catalyst supports. The oxygen groups were introduced in the supports during the modifications. All the supports were characterized by N2-physisorption, Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analysis. Methanol synthesis catalysts were prepared through wet impregnation of copper nitrate and zinc nitrate on the supports followed by thermal decomposition. These catalysts were measured by the means of N2-physisorption, X-ray diffraction, XPS, temperature programmed reduction and TEM tests. The catalytic performances of the prepared catalysts were compared with a commercial catalyst (CZA) in this work. The results showed that the methanol production rate of AC-CZ (23 mmol- CH3OH/(g-Cu·h)) was higher, on Cu loading basis, than that of CZA (9 mmol-CH3OH/ (g-Cu·h)). We also found that the modification methods produced strong metal-support interactions leading to poor catalytic performance. AC without any modification can prompt the catalytic performance of the resulted catalyst.