Structural and optical properties of highly crystalline Ce, Eu and co-doped ZnO nanorods

• High crystal quality of ZnO:Eu, ZnO:Ce and co-doped ZnO:Eu, Ce nanorods were synthesized by chemical method.
• This is first time, well crystalline hollow type ZnO:Eu, ZnO:Ce and co-doped ZnO:Eu, Ce nanorods were prepared.
• An enhanced optical absorption and visible emission were observed.
• Optical absorption and emission were tuned with respect to the doping concentrations.

Different concentrations of europium (Eu), cerium (Ce) doped and co-doped ZnO:Eu (1%), Ce (1%) nanorods were successfully synthesized by chemical method using Polyvinylpyrrolidone as a surfactant. Crystalline phase, morphology, functional groups, optical absorption, emission and thermal properties of prepared samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR), UV–visible, Photoluminescence (PL) spectrophotometer and thermogravimetry (TG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) analysis. The XRD study showed high crystalline nature of the products with nanoscale regime. Optical study showed shifting the absorption and emission spectra toward higher wavelength side when increasing the doping concentrations. Mainly, this is first time observed a red emission peak at 660 nm for Ce (3%) doped ZnO. Additionally, co-doped ZnO:Eu (1%), Ce (1%) nanorods were synthesized and studied their optical properties. This work demonstrates that simply modified their optical absorption and emission of ZnO by introducing rare earth ions can be used as an effective electrode material in solar cell applications, optoelectronic devices and photocatalysis analysis.

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