Abstract
Pure and rare earth (Ce, Er and Eu) doped ZnO aerogels have been synthesized by the sol-gel method followed by supercritical drying in isopropanol. The rare earth (RE) atomic concentration in each aerogel is fixed to 3 at. % ([RE]/[Zn] = 0.03). Zinc acetate dihydrate, rare earth nitrates (Ce, Er and Eu) and methanol were used as Zn2+ ions precursor, rare earth (Ce3+, Er3+ and Eu3+) ions source and solvent, respectively. The as-prepared aerogels were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), UV-visible and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. XRD measurements revealed that the obtained aerogels have polycrystalline ZnO hexagonal wurtzite structure and showed that the RE ions have been introduced into ZnO lattice. Also, It has been observed that Ce and Eu doping ameliorates the crystal quality and slightly changes the lattice parameters of the ZnO aerogels. ATR-IR spectra showed the high purity of the elaborated aerogels and the intensity of the absorption band related to Zn-O vibration bond is found to be dependent on the RE ions. UV-Visible spectra show that pure and RE-doped ZnO crystallites elaborated in supercritical isopropanol do not absorb in the same way due to the various stoichiometric variations of defects created during the elaboration process. It has been found that RE-doping significantly enhances the optical absorption band related to band-to-band absorption. PL spectra show that the concentration of free excitons strongly depends on the RE doping element. The PL measurements demonstrate that RE doping decreases the UV emission and increases the visible one, indicating an increase in the defects concentration localized in the band gap. The intense UV emission is found in pure ZnO aerogel, however, the visible one is found to be the largest and dominant in Ce-doped ZnO crystallites elaborated in supercritical isopropanol.
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Bedhouche, F., Djouadi, D., Chelouche, A., Soualah, A. (2020). Effects of Rare Earth (Ce, Er, Eu) Doping on Structural and Optical Properties of ZnO Aerogels Synthesized in Supercritical Isopropanol. In: Benmounah, A., Abadlia, M.T., Saidi, M., Zerizer, A. (eds) Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Materials and Sustainable Development. ISMSD 2019. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43268-3_6
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