Synthesis of blue emitting ZnO nanorods exhibiting room temperature ferromagnetism

We report here a facile chemical method to prepare ZnO nanorods with micrometer length in large quantity at 80 °C. The as-prepared rods exhibited blue emission and room temperature ferromagnetism simultaneously. The PL of the as-prepared ZnO rods exhibited an overlapped broad emission in the 345–600 nm range. The as-prepared dried rods exhibited a saturation magnetization value of 59.14 × 10−3 emu g−1 at room temperature. On heating, though the material retains its morphology, the magnetization value decreased. Since we have observed a reduction in the intensity of the visible emission followed by a disappearance of the ferromagnetic ordering, we attributed the blue emission and the ferromagnetism to the presence of defects related to singly ionized oxygen vacancies and zinc vacancies.

Graphical abstractWe report here a very simple, cost effective and single step technique for synthesizing multifunctional ZnO nanorods exhibiting room temperature ferromagnetism and blue emission. The 80 °C prepared rods exhibited blue emission and room temperature ferromagnetism simultaneously. The as-prepared dried rods exhibited a saturation magnetization value of 59.14 × 10−3 emu g−1 at RT. On heating, though the material retains its morphology, the magnetization value decreased. Such multifunctional ZnO nanorods with tunable magnetic and optical properties could find promising applications in spintronic, photonic and biomedical applications. Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideHighlights► A facile chemical synthesis for ZnO rods. ► ZnO rods exhibited RT ferromagnetism with a saturation magnetization (Ms) of 59.14 × 10−3 emu g−1. ► Ethanol dispersion of ZnO rods exhibited blue emission at 460 nm ► Blue emitting ZnO particles are in demand for biological fluorescence labeling.