Synthesis, Structure and Photoluminescence of Ni-doped ZnO Rods via Hydrothermal Technique

Abstract

Zn1-xNixO rods with x=0, 0.005, 0.01, and 0.03 were synthesized by a simple hydrothermal technique and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and photoluminescence (PL). The results show that all the as-synthesized samples are hexagonal wurtzite structure and display rod-like shape except the sample with x=0.03 contains a small amount of hexagonal Ni(OH)2. The room-temperature PL spectra of the Ni-doped ZnO rods exhibit a strong blue emission at 440nm, two weak should emission bands centered at 410nm and 467nm and a weak broad yellow emission centered at 550nm. The intrinsic defects increase with the introduction of Ni.