Nitrogen-doped ZnO nanorods prepared by hydrothermal diffusion

ZnO is a wide band-gap material with excellent optical properties for optoelectronics applications. However, device fabrication has been hampered by difficulties in p-type doping. Nitrogen-doped ZnO nanorods were synthesized through thermal diffusion of nitrogen in an aqueous solution at 90 °C. Low-temperature photoluminescence measured at 10 K showed two peaks located at 3.353 and 3.242 eV, which were assigned to the acceptor-bound excitons and donor–acceptor pairs, respectively. The conductance of the nitrogen-doped ZnO nanorods increased 1.5 times compared with Al-doped samples and 5.8 times compared with undoped ZnO nanorods. The results show hydrothermal process to be an attractive technique for preparation of p-type nitrogen-doped ZnO nanorods.

► We synthesized nitrogen doped P-type ZnO nanorods.
► We used a simple way—hydrothermal diffusion at low temperature.
► The conductance of the nitrogen-doped ZnO nanorods increased 1.5 times compared with Al-doped samples and 5.8 times compared with undoped ZnO nanorods.