Effect of morphology on near-infrared shielding properties of aluminum-doped zno by solvothermal synthesis

In this work, aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO) is synthesized for heat-shielding applications. A family of ethanolamine (EA: monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), and triethanolamine TEA)) is used to control the morphology of aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO) synthesized via a simple solvothermal method at the temperature of 120℃ for 6 h. The samples were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The formation of primary ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) showed that TEA yielded highly packed-spherical aggregates not found when DEA and MEA were used. X-ray diffraction (XRD) found that all AZO samples have peaks of the ZnO hexagonal wurtzite structure. XRD patterns of aluminum were found for >10 mol%. UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer was used to study the optical property and heat-shielding of the near-infrared region (NIR, the wavelength from 700-2500 nm). All AZO NPs of 0, 2, 4, and 10 mol% exhibited strong NIR shielding ability up to 80% insulation. From these results, the AZO NPs have potential use as NIR shielding materials of low-cost and simple processes to be coated on an energy-efficient window as smart window coating in buildings and automotive thus reducing energy consumption, especially in air conditioning usage.