One-pot synthesis and optical properties of In- and Sn-doped ZnO nanoparticles

Colloidal indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) and tin-doped zinc oxide (ZTO) nanoparticles were successfully prepared in organic solution, with metal acetylacetonate as the precursor and oleylamine as the solvent. The crystal and optical properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV−visible spectrophotometry, and fluorescence spectroscopy, respectively; the surface and structure morphologies were observed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The XRD patterns of the IZO and ZTO nanoparticles all exhibited similar diffraction peaks consistent with the standard XRD pattern of ZnO, although the diffraction peaks of the IZO and ZTO nanoparticles were slightly shifted with increasing dopant concentration. With increasing dopant concentration, the fluorescent emission peaks of the IZO nanoparticles exhibited an obvious red shift because of the difference in atomic radii of indium and zinc, whereas those of the ZTO nanoparticles exhibited almost no shift because of the similarity in atomic radii of tin and zinc. Furthermore, the sizes of the IZO and ZTO nanoparticles distributed in the ranges 20–40 and 20–25 nm, respectively, which is attributed to the difference in ionic radii of indium and tin.