Facile synthesis of one-dimensional Fe-doped ZnO nanostructures from a single-source inorganic precursor

Abstract

In this article, we report a new way of preparing metal-doped ZnO nanostructures for the first time using layered double hydroxide (LDH) as single-source precursor. Fe-doped ZnO nanostructures have been successfully synthesized by thermal evaporating LDH containing Zn2+ and Fe3+ in a conventional tube furnace under atmospheric pressure without using any catalysts or additives. SEM and TEM images reveal that large scale and uniform nanorods and nanowires can be obtained by controlling evaporation temperature at 600°C and 800°C, respectively. XRD displays a clear shift of ZnO diffraction peaks which can be attributed to an efficient Fe doping in the ZnO lattice, and EDX reveals that the doping content of Fe in ZnO nanorods and nanowires are 0.20 % and 0.49%, respectively. The obtained Fe-doped ZnO nanostructures exhibit intense excitonic UV emission of ZnO and novel structured blue emissions of impurity levels arising from Fe doping. This study provides a simple, effective, and economic way for fabrication of metal-doped ZnO nanostrucutres which could have potential applications in optoelectronic devices.