Abstract
Configurational disorder due to high level multi element doping has gained huge attention from research community because of its possibility of unique phase stability as well as unusual functional properties. Based on this context extensive researches performed in recent decades to establish a new horizon of materials i.e. high entropy alloy and ceramics. Of-late, compositionally complex ceramics (CCCs) has been released as an extended form of high entropy ceramics (HECs) where compositional space has been broadened by consideration of both non-equimolecular compositions and relatively low entropy regions. This report aims to stabilize ZnO wurtzite phase at room temperature replacing the Zn-site with five metallic elements i.e. Ba, Sr, Mn, Fe, Ni in equimolecular ratio to impose configurational disorder in the ZnO lattice. Therefore, (BaxSrxMnxFexNix) Zn1-5xO (where x=0, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03; the films are denoted hereby as ZO, 5DZO, 10DZO and 15DZO respectively) thin films were deposited by low cost spray pyrolysis technique at 200°C. These high-level multi-element doping results in significant effects on the structural, morphological, optical properties of pure ZnO thin film. X-ray diffraction study demonstrated ZnO wurtzite phase stabilization for each deposited film. SEM micrographs revealed a noteworthy transition from original nanorod to well distributed homogeneous fine particles morphology. UV-vis spectroscopy disclosed a sharp rise in transparency (~98%) and band gap (4eV) doped films. At the end, correlations of structural and morphological parameters with tuned functional properties were demonstrated.
Highlights
ZnO is one of the most prominent type of semiconducting materials that shows remarkable wide and direct band gap energy of 3.37 eV at room temperature [1]
The argument has been introduced taking into account of compositionally complex ceramics (CCCs) synthesis forwarded from the concept of high entropy ceramics (HECs) exposed first by Wright et al [7, 8]
Refractive index is found to decrease with the. This experiment highlights the effects of five elements equimolecular ratio doping on the structural, morphological and optical characteristics of pure and doped (BaxSrxMnxFexNix) Zn1- 5xO spray deposited thin films
Summary
ZnO is one of the most prominent type of semiconducting materials that shows remarkable wide and direct band gap energy of 3.37 eV at room temperature [1]. HECs are American Journal of Nanosciences 2021; 7(1): 6-14 defined as mixture of five or more element in equimolecular ratio in at least one cationic sub-lattice of ceramic structure with mixing entropy (∆S ) > 1.60R where entropic contribution overcome enthalpic barrier to stabilize structure [9]. Wright et al has broadened exclusively the concept of entropy stabilized ceramics from high entropy ceramics to compositionally complex ceramics (CCCs) [7, 8]. Films were deposited by spray pyrolysis technique as it is one of the most cost effective, stable and reliable methods to fabricate high quality thin film [18]. The experimental findings are explained later in this report and to the best of our knowledge no such literature has been found yet showing structural stabilization in the low entropy region of compositionally complex ceramics
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