Abstract
This research work describes the synthesis of ZnO nanostructures doped with Ho3+ ions using a conventional sol–gel synthesis method. The nanostructured produced exhibited a wurtzite hexagonal structure in both ZnO and ZnO:Ho3+ (0.25, 0.5, 0.75 mol%) samples. The change in morphology with addition of Ho3+ dopants was observed, which was assigned to Ostwald ripening effect occurring during the nanoparticles’ growth. The photoluminescence emission properties of the doped samples revealed that Ho3+ was emitting through its electronic transitions. Moreover, reduced surface defects were observed in the Holmium doped samples whose analysis was undertaken using an X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) technique. Finally, enhanced room temperature ferromagnetism (RT-FM) for Ho3+-doped ZnO (0.5 mol%) samples with a peak-to-peak line width of 452 G was detected and found to be highly correlated to the UV–VIS transmittance results.
Highlights
The surge of interest observed on ZnO nanostructures research in the past three decades among the scientific community was due to the versatile optical, magnetic and surface properties that they display under room temperature conditions [1]
Considering that during the course of experiment the photoluminescence optimization which revealed that optimum luminescence was obtained from 0.5 mol% Ho3+ -doped ZnO, particular attention was devoted to elucidating the microstructural behavior of 0.5 mol%
The use of the sol–gel method allows facile successful synthesis of Ho3+ doped ZnO (0.5 mol%) nanocrystals in which the Ho3+ ions were found to be emissive through the 4f-4f electronic transitions
Summary
The surge of interest observed on ZnO nanostructures research in the past three decades among the scientific community was due to the versatile optical, magnetic and surface properties that they display under room temperature conditions [1]. Nanomaterials 2021, 11, 2611 co-workers [17] reported on holmium doped zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized via sonochemistry for the evaluation of the Reactive Orange 29 degradation in catalysis. Singh and colleagues have successfully measured the DC magnetization of and resistivity in Ho doped ZnO nanoparticles produced via wet chemical synthesis [18]. In their investigation dedicated to unveiling the optical and dielectric properties of Ho-doped ZnO, a research group have successfully established the correlainvestigation dedicated to unveiling the optical and dielectric properties of Ho-doped tion of the abovementioned properties to ZnO related defects [19].
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