Photoluminescence of zinc oxide supported on submicron silica particles

Synthetic well-defined SiO2 particles were used as substrates to grow ZnS nanoparticles at the silica surfaces. Such SiO2/ZnS composite particles were investigated as precursors to produce ZnO supported on submicron silica, by a simple calcination process. The structural and optical properties of the supported ZnO phase are reported. The ZnO emission is dominated by the typical green band at 2.5 eV commonly associated with intrinsic defects.