Green emission from ZnO nanorods: Role of defects and morphology

Received 9 January 2010; accepted 11 January 2010. published online 15 January 2010.

Highly luminescent and weak ferromagnetic ZnO nanorods were prepared by a facile solvothermal method. Luminescence studies carried out on as-synthesized ZnO nanorods, subjected to heat treatment in a variety of environments, established that Zn vacancies are responsible for the green emission. A significant change in morphology has been found on treating these as-synthesized nanorods in hydrogen, even at room temperature, which is attributed to the removal of oxygen from the already Zn-deficient ZnO lattice.

Keywords: Solvothermal method, Nanorods, Photoluminescence, X-ray diffraction, Ferromagnetism

a Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400085, India

b Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 4820, USA

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 22 2559 5330; fax: +91 22 2550 5151.

PII: S1359-6462(10)00021-7

doi:10.1016/j.scriptamat.2010.01.020

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