Properties of Al-Doped ZnO Nanorods Synthesized Using Low Temperature Hydrothermal Method

Abstract

This work describes the growth of 1-D Al-doped ZnO nanorods via low temperature hydrothermal reaction on seeded substrates. The amount of Al doped ZnO nanorods were tuned by using different concentration of aluminum nitrate from 1-20 mM. The optimum 5 mM Al doping produced an arrays of sharp-tip nanorods with average length of ~1.16 μm and average diameter of ~118 nm. I-V characteristic of the Al-doped ZnO nanorods fabricated onto Al electrodes were observed under UV illumination and dark condition. The change in photoconductivity of Al-doped ZnO nanorods under UV light was found two orders of times higher compared to ZnO nanorods. Different concentrations of aluminium doped ZnO nanorods UV sensing showed response to UV light but with different sensing value. 5 mM Al-doped ZnO showed high responsivity of fabricated UV sensing at 3V with 23.56 A/W which was higher compared to other concentrations. This suggested that the responsivity of Al-doped ZnO NRs UV sensing could be controlled to some extent by controlling the percentage of Al-doped.