Enhancement of photoluminescence lifetime of ZnO nanorods making use of Thiourea

Abstract

We have investigated correlation of photoluminescence lifetime between zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods and thiourea-doped ZnO nanorods (tu: CH 4N 2S). Aqueous solutions of ZnO nanorods were deposited on glass substrate by using pneumatic spray pyrolysis technique. The as-prepared specimens were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy (TRPL). The photoluminescence lifetime of ZnO nanorods and ZnO nanorods containing thiourea was determined as τ = 1.56 ± 0.05 ns (χ 2 = 0.9) and τ = 2.12 ± 0.03 ns (χ 2 = 1.0), respectively. The calculated lifetime values of ZnO nanorods revealed that the presence of thiourea in ZnO nanorods resulted in increasing the exciton lifetime. In addition to the optical quality of ZnO nanorods, their exciton lifetime is comparable to the longest lifetimes reported for ZnO nanorods. The structural improvement of ZnO nanorods, containing thiourea, was also elucidated by taking their SEM images which show the thinner and longer ZnO nanorods compared to those without thiourea. Copyright © 2012 Erdal Snmez and Kadem Meral.