Spectromicroscopy and photoluminescence analysis of prickly ZnO nanostructures

Abstract

Prickly nanostructures of ZnO have been obtained by the hydrothermal synthesis technique. Structures are analyzed using X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy as well as photoelectron spectromicroscopy. The analysis revealed that the prickly ZnO nanostructures are highly crystalline with hexagonal wurtzite phase and possess homogeneous compositional structures. They are assembled of nanothread structures with narrow thickness distribution around 30 nm. The valence band analysis revealed that there are peaks due to the bonding, nonbonding, and antibonding of the zinc and oxygen orbitals. These nanostructures exhibit intense near band-edge emission. Photoluminescence analysis showed that the structures also give defect-induced blue emission along with green emission.