Sol–gel derived yttrium doped ZnO nanostructures

Yttrium doped ZnO nanostructures were synthesized at room temperature by sol–gel technique. The sols were prepared using zinc acetate di-hydrate and ethanol as the precursors with yttrium nitrate hexahydrate as the dopant. Lactic acid with water was used as the acidic catalyst to control the hydrolysis reaction. Ammonia was added to vary the pH of the solution and the shape of the nanostructures changed with the change in pH of the solution. The films were deposited on ultrasonically cleaned glass substrates by dip coating technique. X-ray diffraction patterns indicated that the obtained nanostructures were polycrystalline in nature with (1 0 0), (0 0 2) and (1 0 1) reflections of hexagonal ZnO crystal structure. The ZnO films exhibited nanostructures with a rod/lathe like morphology on changing the yttrium concentration. The diameters of the structures varied from 100 nm to 250 nm and the aspect ratio was found to be in the range of 50–70.