Compressive strain of la induced in ZnO nanorods by interstitial site passivation for enhanced charge carrier transport mechanism
Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) doped with lanthanum (La) were synthesized via a low-temperature 90 °C hydrothermal method to investigate defect passivation and charge transport enhancement. Structural and spectroscopic characterization reveals that La3+ preferentially adsorbs at ZnO surfaces and gr...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Chemical Society
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/45119/ http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/45119/1/Compressive%20strain%20of%20la%20induced%20in%20ZnO%20nanorods%20by%20interstitial%20site.pdf |
| Summary: | Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) doped with lanthanum (La) were synthesized via a low-temperature 90 °C hydrothermal method to investigate defect passivation and charge transport enhancement. Structural and spectroscopic characterization reveals that La3+ preferentially adsorbs at ZnO surfaces and grain boundaries, inducing compressive strain that suppresses defect formation without lattice substitution. Morphological studies demonstrate improved surface uniformity in La-doped NRs, while Raman spectroscopy shows reduced defect-related modes at 1 mol % La doping. XPS analysis confirms interfacial La3+ localization through characteristic 3.5 eV satellite features and minimal binding energy shifts of merely 0.2 eV. The optimal 1 mol % La-doped ZnO exhibits a conductivity of 5.46 S/m at 3.25 eV bandgap with a 4.6% improvement over high-temperature (>300 °C) synthesized La-ZnO references. While pristine ZnO shows higher absolute conductivity, these results demonstrate that low-temperature hydrothermal processing can achieve comparable electronic property enhancement to conventional high-temperature methods. This work provides fundamental insights into interfacial doping strategies for ZnO-based materials, with potential implications for optoelectronic applications. |
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