Abstract
Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocrystals (NCs) were synthesized using a modified sol-gel method. Ultraviolet (UV) treatment was performed under various atmospheres on the highly stacked ZnO NCs. The prepared NCs were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy to investigate their structural, electrical, and electrochemical properties. Through these analyses, the effect of the UV treatment on the chemical and electrical characteristics of ZnO NCs was established. According to the analyses, the organic ligands in the NCs were decomposed, and the particles were densified. The mobility of UV-treated ZnO NCs thin films increased to 1.4 cm2/Vs, almost 2 orders higher than the UV untreated ZnO thin films. It was confirmed that the recombination from oxygen vacancies of ZnO could be controlled by UV irradiation. As decreased oxygen vacancies, the band gap of ZnO NCs was increased from 3.2 eV to 3.27 eV.
Highlights
Zinc oxide (ZnO) has several favorable properties, including high electron mobility, a wide bandgap, and strong room-temperature luminescence[1,2,3,4]
The ZnO NCs were synthesized by the Spanhel and Anderson method[19]
The ZnO NCs were identified as the wurtzite phase by comparison with the reference JCPDS card number 80-007425
Summary
Zinc oxide (ZnO) has several favorable properties, including high electron mobility, a wide bandgap, and strong room-temperature luminescence[1,2,3,4]. These properties are valuable in numerous applications, including energy-saving or heat-protecting windows and electronics, such as thin-film transistors, light-emitting diodes, and transparent electrodes in liquid-crystal displays[5,6,7,8,9]. Studies on replacing the ligands with shorter ones and controlling the ligand length using metal chalcogenides and monovalent inorganic ligands have been performed to overcome the disadvantages of capping ligands[23] ZnO NCs were prepared and shown to have highly stacked properties through thin film processing
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