Ordered Zinc Antimonate Nanoisland Attachment and Morphology Control of ZnO Nanobelts by Sb Doping

Abstract

Hierarchical heterostructures of zinc antimonate nanoislands on ZnO nanobelts were prepared by simple annealing of the polymeric precursor. Sb can promote the growth of ZnO nanobelts along the [552] direction because of the segregation of Sb dopants on the +(001) and (110) surfaces of ZnO nanobelts. Furthermore, the ordered nanoislands of toothlike ZnSb2O6 along the [001]ZnO direction and rodlike Zn7Sb2O12 along the [110]ZnO direction can be formed because of the match relation of the lattice and polar charges between ZnO and zinc antimonate. The incorporation of Sb in a ZnO lattice induces composition fluctuation, and the growth of zinc antimonate nanoislands on nanobelt sides induces interface fluctuation, resulting in dominance of the bound exciton transition in the room temperature near-band-edge (NBE) emission at relatively low excitation intensity. At high excitation intensity, however, Auger recombination makes photogenerated electrons release phonon and relax from the conduction band to the trap states, causing the NBE emission to gradually saturate and redshift with increasing excitation intensity. The green emission more reasonably originates from the recombination of electrons in shallow traps with doubly charged V O * * oxygen vacancies. Because a V O * * center can trap a photoactivated electron and change to a singly charged oxygen vacancy V O * state, its emission intensity exhibits a maximum with increasing excitation intensity.

A highly efficient UV photodetector based on a ZnO microwire p–n homojunction

“…The doping of the Sb element is responsible for the formation of the zigzag surface in ZnO microwires, which is in accordance with the literature. 18,36 To determine the composition of Sb in ZnO microwires, we performed the EDX analysis, which showed that the Sb concentration was 0.3% within the measurement limit of EDX. The zigzag rough surface is even along the whole microwire, which implies the uniform Sb doping in ZnO.…”

Individual Ohmic contacted ZnO/Zn2SnO4 radial heterostructured nanowires as photodetectors with a broad-spectral-response: injection of electrons into/from interface states

“…Nano-heterostructures exhibit unique properties and multiple functions which cannot be realized in singlecomponent materials and they have been attracting increasing research interest recently. [31][32][33][34][35][36][37] Core/shell radial heterojunction NWs are superior to bulk heterojunction devices since the carrier separation takes place in the radial direction, with a carrier collection distance that is smaller or comparable to the minority carrier diffusion length. 22,38 Herein, photodetectors were fabricated based on Ohmic contacted individual Zn 2 SnO 4 -sheathed ZnO radial heterostructured NWs.…”

Morphology and electrical characteristics of p-type ZnO microwires with zigzag rough surfaces induced by Sb doping

“… 25 The solutes prefer to segregate from the host and occupy the surface of the nanostructures, result in a decreased surface energy. 26 Hence we propose that Sb is responsible for the zigzag surface and zigzag shaped microwires are surrounded by (0002), (0110) and (2110) as the surface. 27 …”

“…Some researchers reported that Sb in ZnO have an effect on the morphology of nanostructure. [25][26][27] The introduction of Sb can alter the morphology of the ZnO nanomaterials, including crystal size, orientation, and aspect ratio, which also have important effects on their electrical and optical properties, gas sensitivity and catalytic properties. 28 When Sb was introduced into ZnO, it has higher resistance and diffuse reectivity than those of the undoped ZnO.…”