The structure of epitaxial growth of Nb-doped ZnO nanorods on intrinsic substrate via sonicated aqueous chemical method

• Published in: Ceramics International
• Main Author: Eswar K.A.; Rostan N.F.; Mohamad M.; Md Akhir R.; Khairul Azhar N.A.; Buniyamin I.; Azhar N.E.; Malek M.F.; Suhaimi M.H.F.; Mahmood M.R.; Abdullah S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85194074489&doi=10.1016%2fj.ceramint.2024.05.313&partnerID=40&md5=a733be6319274c54a9977c4fc42fa305

The simplicity and abundance of water sources make water-based synthesis extremely intriguing. Nb-doped ZnO nanorods was successfully grown using a straightforward and cost-effective aqueous chemical technique. The precursor of Nb-doped ZnO comprised zinc nitrate hexahydrate, hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA), and deionized water. These substances were used as starting materials, stabilisers, and solvents, respectively. Niobium chloride served as a source of niobium dopant. The intrinsic seeded substrate was submerged in a Nb-doped ZnO precursor solution in order to facilitate the epitaxial growth of nanorods. In order to investigate the influence of the dopant percentage, the amount of Nb-dopant was varied from 0 to 0.7 at. %. The presence of Nb-doped ZnO nanorods was confirmed by the utilisation of FESEM and EDAX techniques, which allowed for the verification of both the growth of nanorods and the identification of their constituent elements. The diameter obtained is between 79.76 and 134.51 nm, depending on the amount of dopant. Since the average nanorod length is 1.1086 ± 24.9187 μm, the aspect ratio estimation is about 13.9. The atomic arrangement was investigated using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The interplanar distance of 0.264 nm corresponds to plan (002) estimated via HRTEM. The estimation is in agreement with the XRD analysis. In addition, the peak of (002) is dominant for every sample. The sharpest and highest peak can be found in 0.3 at. % of dopant. As the texture coefficient (TC) has a higher value for plan (002), crystalline growth is preferred in c-orientation. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.