Photoluminescence trend in mixture of zinc oxide and carbon nanoparticles after mechanical processing

The transformations of photoluminescence (PL) spectra and X ray diffraction (XRD) diagrams for the mixture of ZnO+xC nanoparticles at intensive mechanical processing (MP) have been investigated. Three types of ZnO+xC mixtures with the different carbon concentrations (x) equal to 0.1%, 1.0% and 3.0% wt have been analyzed. The study reveals the diversity of physical processes occurring at MP: the destruction of ZnO nanoparticle aggregates, crushing the individual ZnO nanoparticles from the size of 250 nm down to 14 nm, the carbon atom interaction with oxygen and the formation of oxides, the interaction of carbon atoms with a surface of ZnO nanoparticles, etc. The new PL bands peaked at 2.10–2.20 and 2.82–288 eV have been revealed in PL spectra after MP. The dependence of 2.82–288 eV PL band intensity on the carbon concentration in ZnO+xC mixtures and the nature of this emission have been discussed.