Effect of Sn doping on microstructural and optical properties of ZnO nanoparticles synthesized by microwave irradiation method

Pure and Sn-doped ZnO nanostructures have been synthesized by the microwave irradiation method. The influence of Sn loading on the morphology and microstructure was evaluated by using field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive spectrum analysis techniques, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. A change in the growth pattern, from needle-like particles for pure ZnO to agglomerated spherical crystallites for Sn-doped ZnO, has been observed. TEM observations indicated that the average particle size of the pure ZnO nano needles is in the range of 40–60 nm, whereas on addition of Sn spherical nanoassemblies size lies in the range of 10–21 nm. The pure ZnO and Sn-doped ZnO nanostructures were further characterized for their optical properties by UV–Vis reflectance spectra (DRS) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy.     

Effect of Ag doping on structural, electrical and dielectric properties of TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized by a low temperature hydrothermal method

Silver (Ag) doped thermally stable TiO₂ nanoparticles in the anatase phase have been synthesized by a low temperature hydrothermal method. The formation of anatase phase has been investigated by X-ray diffraction. Thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry have been used for thermal studies. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy have been used for the morphology and composition studies. Surface areas were studied by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method. Dielectric properties were studied for dopant levels of 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0?wt% at 300?K in the frequency range of 42?Hz–5?MHz. The crystallite size, alternating current (AC) conductivity and dielectric properties of undoped TiO₂ nanoparticles were greatly affected by doping with Ag. At high frequencies, the materials showed high AC Conductivity and low dielectric constant.     

High-sensitivity humidity sensor based on SnO2 nanoparticles synthesized by microwave irradiation method

Tin oxide hexagonal-shaped nanodiscs (SnO) and spherical nanoparticles (SnO₂) have been prepared by using a simple household microwave irradiation method with an operating frequency of 2.45 GHz. This technique permits us to produce gram quantity of homogeneous nanoparticles in just 10 min. The crystallite size was evaluated from powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies and was in the 20 to 25 nm range. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis showed that the as prepared SnO form as hexagonal-shaped nanodiscs and upon subsequent annealing at 500 °C for 5 h in air, the SnO gets converted to spherical-shaped nanoparticles of SnO₂. The SnO₂ sample shows good sensitivity towards the relative humidity. The calculated response and recovery time were found to be 32 s and 25 s respectively. These results indicate promising applications of SnO₂ nanoparticles in a highly sensitive environmental monitoring and humidity controlled electronic devices. The samples were further subjected to thermal analyses (TG–DTA) and UV–VIS diffusion reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) studies.     

Influence of Mg doping on the microstructure and PL emission of wurtzite ZnO synthesized by microwave processing

In this paper, we report the synthesis of nano-structured Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and Magnesium doped Zinc Oxide (ZnO:Mg) using air stable and inexpensive chemicals, by microwave assisted processing. The as-synthesized ZnO and ZnO:Mg nanopowders were annealed at 800 °C for 1 h. The samples were further characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The crystallite size of ZnO decreased from 24 to 16 nm, and the intensity of most prominent vibration band of ZnO becomes weak when Mg dopant is added. SEM images of Mg doped ZnO showed clearly distinct hexagonal shaped nanoparticles with good crystalline quality and size contrast to ZnO. The PL result indicate that the ZnO exhibit strong and sharp UV emission peak at 380 nm. Our result showed that, by doping magnesium into ZnO, the UV emission peak shift towards the lower wavelength at ~370 nm with increasing intensity, which may be attributed to the size confinement. From this study, the microwave processing method has been proved to be successful for preparing other metal oxide nanopowders with good crystal quality.     

锗掺杂二氧化钛薄膜的溶胶凝胶法制备和性能研究

二氧化钛是一种无毒、廉价、稳定的半导体材料,被广泛用作光电化学太阳能电池的电极材料,适当掺杂可以增强其光电性能.以钛酸丁酯和四正丁氧基锗烷为主要原料,采用溶胶-凝胶提拉涂膜法制备了Ge掺杂的TiO_2薄膜.通过X射线衍射、扫描电镜、紫外-可见吸收光谱、电流-电压曲线等测试手段研究了薄膜的结晶性能、微观结构和光电性能随Ge掺杂量的变化规律.结果表明,Ge掺杂量x=0.10时,形成Ti_(1-x)Ge_xO_2固溶体,x=0.15时,形成非晶态.掺锗后薄膜表面颗粒密度增大,薄膜比较致密.随着Ge掺杂量的增加,吸收光谱吸收边蓝移,光电化学性能也得到一定提高.在Ge掺杂量为0.05时,光电流达到最大值17A/m~2.同时,研究了锗掺杂对光电流的影响.     

Microstructure and luminescence properties of Co-doped SnO2 nanoparticles synthesized by hydrothermal method

Co-doped SnO₂ nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method, and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) and Photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). It is found that the SnO₂ crystallites with the tetragonal rutile structure formed directly during the hydrothermal process without calcination. The Co-doped SnO₂ nanoparticles were spheric and well-dispersed with narrow size distribution. The crystalline size of SnO₂ decreased from 5.98 to 2.22 nm when the Co content increased from 0% to 20%. A considerable red shift in the absorbing band edge was observed with increasing of Co dopant.     

Improved photocatalytic activity of anisotropic rutile/anatase TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized by the Ti-peroxo complex method

Anisotropic rutile/anatase TiO2 nanoparticles (AB-TiO2) were synthesized by the Ti-peroxo complex method. Their photocatalytic activity in the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) was evaluated and compared to that of commercial TiO2 P25 and TiO2 obtained through the benzyl alcohol route (OB-TiO2). The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR in DRIFT mode), Field-Emission Scanning Electronic Microscopy (FEG-SEM), N2 physisorption and UV-visible spectroscopy. Photodegradation of RhB was carried out under visible light and the results revealed a remarkable photocatalytic activity of the AB-TiO2 in terms of surface area. The excellent performance of the AB-TiO2 was explained in light of the synergistic effect of the coexistence of anatase/rutile phases, anisotropy and irreversible adsorption of organic species during sol-gel synthesis. UV-visible measurements also indicated that N-deethylation and photobleaching mechanisms occur to different extents, depending on the surface composition of the photocatalyst.     

Effect of cobalt doping on the phase transformation of TiO2 nanoparticles

Co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles containing 0.0085, 0.017, 0.0255, 0.034, and 0.085 mol % Co(III) ion dopant were synthesized via sol-gel and dip-coating techniques. The effects of metal ion doping on the transformation of anatase to the rutile phase have been investigated. Several analytical tools, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) were used to investigate the nanoparticle structure, size distribution, and composition. Results obtained revealed that the rutile to anatase concentration ratio increases with increase of the cobalt dopant concentration and annealing temperature. The typical composition of Co-doped TiO2 was Ti(1-x)Co(x)O2, where x values ranged from 0.0085 to 0.085. The activation energy for the phase transformation from anatase to rutile was measured to be 229, 222, 211, and 195 kJ/mole for 0.0085, 0.017, 0.0255, and 0.034 mol % Co in TiO2, respectively.     

Photocatalytic activity of La, Y Co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized by ultrasonic assisted sol-gel method

Bare TiO2 (T), La-doped TiO2 (LT), Y-doped TiO2 (YT), La, Y co-doped TiO2 (LYT) were successfully prepared by facile ultrasonic assisted sol-gel synthesis using Ti(OC4H9)4 as the precursor. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. The photocatalytic activities of anatase samples, with the average particle diameters ranging from 14 nm to 21 nm, were evaluated for photodegradation of methyl orange (MO). The XPS results indicated that Y atoms were incorporated into titania lattice, while La atoms existed on the crystal surface. Due to doping, the optical absorption edges of LT, YT, and LYT shifted to the visible light region by 21 nm, 29 nm and 35 nm, respectively. The photocatalytic performances of the doped samples, such as LT, YT and LYT, were much higher than that of bare TiO2 under UV-visible light irradiation. And the photoreactivity efficiency of the LYT was the highest. It indicated that a strong La-Y synergistic interaction appeared to play a decisive role in driving the excellent photocatalytic performance of titania.     

Influence of Co doping on the magnetic properties of Bi2Fe4O9 powders

Co doped Bi₂Fe₄O₉ powders were synthesized via a simple sol–gel method. The crystal structure of the as-synthesized powders was characterized using X-ray diffraction and Raman spectra. The magnetic properties of the as-synthesized powders were investigated by a SQUID MPMS at 5 K. The results reveal that the calculated lattice parameters of Bi₂Fe₄O₉ decrease and the magnetic properties sharply increase with increasing the content of Co.     

杂CeO2的TiO2光催化降解甲醛的研究

采用液相合成法制备CeO2改性TiO2光催化粉体,利用X射线衍射仪、紫外-可见分光光度计、X射线光电子能谱等对粉体的晶相组成、光谱吸收性能等进行了表征,结果表明:改性后的TiO2经800℃热处理后仍呈锐钛矿结构;CeO2/TiO2吸收光谱的阈值波长红移至450nm;改性后TiO2表面的化学吸附氧含量增加.光催化降解甲醛的结果表明,粉体在普通日光灯下对甲醛气体的降解率明显优于P25.