Nano-Flower Structure of Indium and Gallium doped Zinc Oxide Powder

Flower-like zinc oxide nanostructures have been successfully fabricated by various methods such as chemical vapor deposition, vapor phase transport deposition, thermal evaporation, hydrothermal, sol-gel and template growth methods. Zinc oxide doped with indium and gallium can demonstrate the potential utilization in electronic application for its semiconductor characteristic and the nanostructure of this doped material can enhance its property. In this study, indium and gallium doped zinc oxide nano-structures were prepared by ease method of hydrothermal process, which can well control the morphologies of zinc oxide nanostructure. The concentration percentage of dopants including indium and gallium were varied up to the limitation of synthesis. The dependence on doping content of indium and gallium on the particle morphologies and specific surface area of the samples was investigated systematically. The atomic arrangement and surface properties of synthesized samples were studied according to the measured results obtained by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscope and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller measurement. According to the results, the obtained sample nanostructures are in the size of hundred nanometers with the shape in sheet-like and/or needle-like flower structures. However, the nano-flower structure is found to be disappeared beyond some specific high percentage of the dopant above 15%. The amount of doped indium and gallium are also found in XPS measurement and the substitution of doped atoms in zinc oxide crystal system are also showed in XRD investigation.