Abstract
In this paper, hexagonal germanium dioxide (GeO2) nanostructures with different morphologies and sizes were successfully synthesized by a simple and fast electrodeposition method. We investigated the electrochemical growth mechanism and the structural and optical properties of the products through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cathodoluminescence (CL). The results reveal that the electrodeposited GeO2 nanostructures are pure, dense, and highly crystalline. The XRD analyses indicate that the resulting GeO2 crystals only show peaks related to the α-quartz structure. CL measurements exhibit strong blue and green light emissions related to oxygen vacancies in the core of the GeO2 crystals. The resulting nanostructures may have potential application in integrated optical devices in the future.
Highlights
Nanoscale germanium‐based materials exhibit a variety of novel properties and benefit a wide range of applications [1]–[10]
This paper reports the successful synthesis of hexagonal GeO2 nanostructures by a simple and fast electrodeposition method with a plausible growth mechanism
Electrochemical characterization and morphology: The electrochemical characterizations such as cyclic voltammetry measurements help us to identify oxidation reduction processes potentially undergone by the system of interest and to choose an appropriate potential [43], [44]
Summary
Nanoscale germanium‐based materials exhibit a variety of novel properties and benefit a wide range of applications [1]–[10]. This nanomaterial shows a good blue photoluminescence behavior, which is highly sought after for optical waveguides and optoelectronic communication devices [18], especially, electro optical modulators, piezoelectric glass materials, optical fibre materials and non-linear optics [19]–[21] Due to this all, so far, different approaches to synthesizing nanostructured GeO2 have been elucidated in the literature, including thermal treatment of Ge [22], vapor transport [23], carbothermal reaction [24], carbon nanotube confined reaction of Ge [25], chemical vapor deposition [26], supercritical fluidliquid-solid synthesis [27], electro-spinning [28], e-beam evaporation [29], [30], sol-gel deposition [31], [32], radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering [33], [34], and laser ablation [35]. The accelerating voltage used in the CL characterization is 20 keV
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