Aqueous Synthesis of Mn- and Co-Doped ZnO Nanorods

Abstract

Herein, we report the optical and magnetic properties of Mn- and Co-doped ZnO nanorods fabricated via a simple one-step aqueous-based chemical method. Interestingly, SEM results reveal a uniform size distribution of the nanorods throughout the substrate. The UV emission band of doped ZnO nanorods reveals a red shift from 382 to 384.5 nm, indicating a band-edge bending due to the dopants. The defect-related band centered at 600 urn is suppressed (I(D)/I(UV) = 1-0.35) considerably in doped nanorods, revealing the quenching of surface defects present in the nanostructures. XRD, XPS, Raman spectra, and EDS data demonstrate a successful incorporation of TM dopants in ZnO nanorods. Localized SAED patterns taken using nanoprobe size reveals that the nanorods are single crystals, grown along the c-axis [0002] direction. A systematic evalution of the enhancement in ferromagnetism (M = 0.15 x 10(-2) to 1.3 x 10(-2) emu/g) is found in modified doped ZnO nanorods.