Growth and Characterization of ZnO based Heterojunction diodes and ZnO Nanostructuresby Pulsed Laser Ablation

Transparent conducting oxides (TCO’s) have been known and used for technologically important applications for more than 50 years. The oxide materials such as In2O3, SnO2 and impurity doped SnO2: Sb, SnO2: F and In2O3: Sn (indium tin oxide) were primarily used as TCO’s. Indium based oxides had been widely used as TCO’s for the past few decades. But the current increase in the cost of indium and scarcity of this material created the difficulty in obtaining low cost TCO’s. Hence the search for alternative TCO material has been a topic of active research for the last few decades. This resulted in the development of various binary and ternary compounds. But the advantages of using binary oxides are the easiness to control the composition and deposition parameters. ZnO has been identified as the one of the promising candidate for transparent electronic applications owing to its exciting optoelectronic properties. Some optoelectronics applications of ZnO overlap with that of GaN, another wide band gap semiconductor which is widely used for the production of green, blue-violet and white light emitting devices. However ZnO has some advantages over GaN among which are the availability of fairly high quality ZnO bulk single crystals and large excitonic binding energy. ZnO also has much simpler crystal-growth technology, resulting in a potentially lower cost for ZnO based devices. Most of the TCO’s are n-type semiconductors and are utilized as transparent electrodes in variety of commercial applications such as photovoltaics, electrochromic windows, flat panel displays. TCO’s provide a great potential for realizing diverse range of active functions, novel functions can be integrated into the materials according to the requirement. However the application of TCO’s has been restricted to transparent electrodes, ii notwithstanding the fact that TCO’s are n-type semiconductors. The basic reason is the lack of p-type TCO, many of the active functions in semiconductor originate from the nature of pn-junction. In 1997, H. Kawazoe et al reported the CuAlO2 as the first p-type TCO along with the chemical design concept for the exploration of other p-type TCO’s. This has led to the fabrication of all transparent diode and transistors. Fabrication of nanostructures of TCO has been a focus of an ever-increasing number of researchers world wide, mainly due to their unique optical and electronic properties which makes them ideal for a wide spectrum of applications ranging from flexible displays, quantum well lasers to in vivo biological imaging and therapeutic agents. ZnO is a highly multifunctional material system with highly promising application potential for UV light emitting diodes, diode lasers, sensors, etc. ZnO nanocrystals and nanorods doped with transition metal impurities have also attracted great interest, recently, for their spin-electronic applications This thesis summarizes the results on the growth and characterization of ZnO based diodes and nanostructures by pulsed laser ablation. Various ZnO based heterojunction diodes have been fabricated using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and their electrical characteristics were interpreted using existing models. Pulsed laser ablation has been employed to fabricate ZnO quantum dots, ZnO nanorods and ZnMgO/ZnO multiple quantum well structures with the aim of studying the luminescent properties.

A comparative study on the anisole methylation activity of lanthanum-promoted Sn02 catalyst and its sulfate-doped analogue

A comparative study on the anisole methylation with methanol over lanthanum-promoted Sn02 catalyst and its sulfate-doped analogue is presented. A maximum 2.6-xylenol selectivity of 82% was achieved at 400 degreeC under optimized conditions at an anisole conversion of 65% over lanthanum-promoted Sn02 catalyst. The sulfate modification resulted in the dealkylation of anisole to phenol followed by several unselective side reactions due to the creation of strong acid sites. The activity of lanthanum-modified tin oxide catalysts in the selective formation of 2.6-xylenol is ascribed to the presence of weak Lewis acid sites and comparatively stronger basic sites.

Energy bandstructureinvestigationofblueandgreenlightemitting Mg dopedSnO2 nanostructuressynthesizedbycombustionmethod

Tin oxide(SnO2) andMgdoped(2,4,6,and8wt%)SnO2 nanoparticles weresynthesizedbytheself- propagating solutioncombustionsynthesisusingcitricacidasfuel.Thecharacterizationofsampleswas done byX-raydiffractionspectroscopy(XRD),transmissionelectronmicroscopy(TEM),UV–visible spectroscopy,SAEDandphotoluminescence(PL).XRDpatternandTEMstudiesshowthatthe synthesized particlesareofaveragesize30nmandtheyareintetragonalrutilestructureofSnO2. Combined blueandgreenemissionisseenin4wt%MgdopedSnO2 and intensityofbluebandis increased withrespecttoincreaseinMgdopantconcentrationwhichisattributedtoincreasein population ofoxygenvacancies.ThePLemissioninblueandgreenregionisduetothedoublycharged state (Vo 2þ) ofoxygenandtininterstitialdefectsrespectivelyandisexplainedwithanenergyband diagram

Tubular Organization of SnO₂ Nanocrystallites for Improved Lithium Ion Battery Anode Performance

Porous tin oxide nanotubes were obtained by vacuum infiltration of tin oxide nanoparticles into porous aluminum oxide membranes, followed by calcination. The porous tin oxide nanotube arrays so prepared were characterized by FE-SEM, TEM, HRTEM, and XRD. The nanotubes are open-ended, highly ordered with uniform cross-sections, diameters and wall thickness. The tin oxide nanotubes were evaluated as a substitute anode material for the lithium ion batteries. The tin oxide nanotube anode could be charged and discharged repeatedly, retaining a specific capacity of 525 mAh/g after 80 cycles. This capacity is significantly higher than the theoretical capacity of commercial graphite anode (372 mAh/g) and the cyclability is outstanding for a tin based electrode. The cyclability and capacities of the tin oxide nanotubes were also higher than their building blocks of solid tin oxide nanoparticles. A few factors accounting for the good cycling performance and high capacity of tin oxide nanotubes are suggested.

Changes on iron electrode surface during hydrogen permeation in borate buffer solution

Hydrogen interaction with oxide films grown on iron electrodes at open circuit potential (E-oc) and in the passive region (+0.30 V-ECS) was studied by chronopotentiometry, chronoamperometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. The results were obtained in deaerated 0.3 mol L-1 H3BO3 + 0.075 mol L-1 Na2B4O7 (BB, pH 8.4) solution before, during and after hydrogen permeation. The iron oxide film modification was also investigated by means of in situ X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) before and during hydrogen permeation. The main conclusion was that the passive film is reduced during the hydrogen diffusion. The hydrogen permeation stabilizes the iron surface at a potential close to the thermodynamic water stability line where hydrogen evolution can occur. The stationary condition required for the determination of the permeation parameters cannot be easily attained on iron surface during hydrogen permeation. Moreover, additional attention must be paid when obtaining the transport parameters using the classical permeation cell. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gelatin-based protonic electrolyte for electrochromic windows

Proton-conducting gel polymer electrolytes based on gelatin plasticized with glycerol and containing acetic acid were investigated, characterized, and applied to electrochromic window. For glycerol contents varying from 7% to 48%, the conductivity of the uniform and predominantly amorphous gel electrolyte was found to follow a Vogel-Tamman-Fulcher behavior with the temperature. Typically, for the electrolyte chosen to make 7 x 2 cm(2) electrochromic smart window with the configuration: glass/fluor-doped tin oxide (FTO)/WO(3)/gelatin electrolyte/CeO(2)-TiO(2)/FTO/glass and containing 28% of glycerol, the conductivities were found to be of the order of 5 x 10(-5) S/cm at room temperature and 3.6 x 10(-4) S/cm at 80 A degrees C. The device was characterized by spectroelectrochemical techniques and was tested up to 10,000 cycles showing a fast coloring/bleaching behavior, where the coloring process was achieved in 10 s and the bleaching in 2 s. The transmission variation at the wavelength of 550 nm was about 15%. The cyclic voltammograms showed a very good reversibility of the cathodic/anodic processes, and the charge density was about 3.5 mC/cm(2). The memory tests showed that the transmittance in the colored state increased by 8% in 90 min after removing the potential.

Estudo da viabilidade técnica para obtenção de superfície duplex em aço inoxidável martensítico AISI 410 através do processo de deposição a plasma por gaiola catódica

The technique of plasma nitriding by the cathode cage mainly stands out for its ability to produce uniform layers, even on parts with complex geometries. In this study, it was investigated the efficiency of this technique for obtaining duplex surface, when used, simultaneously, to nitriding treatment and thin film deposition at temperatures below 500°C. For this, were used samples of AISI 41 0 Martensitic Stainless Steel and performed plasma treatment, combining nitriding and deposition of thin films of Ti and/or TiN in a plasma atmosphere containing N2-H2. It was used a cathodic cage of titanium pure grade II, cylindrical with 70 mm diameter and 34 mm height. Samples were treated at temperature 420ºC for 2 and 12 hours in different working pressures. Optical Microscopy (OM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with micro-analysis by Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and analysis of Vickers Microhardness were used to investigate coating properties such as homogeneity and surface topography, chemical composition, layer thickness, crystalline phase, roughness and surface microhardness. The results showed there is a direct proportionality between the presence of H2 in plasma atmosphere and the quantity of titanium in surface chemical composition. It was also observed that the plasma treatment at lowpressure is more effective in formation of TiN thin film

Estudo da oxidação superficial de ligas odontológicas de Ni-Cr em plasma pulsado para uso em restaurações metalocerâmicas

Metal ceramic restorations matches aesthetic and strength, and in your making occurs an interface oxide layer, wetting resulting and atomic and ionic interactions resulting between metal, oxide and porcelain. However, frequent clinical fails occurs in this restoration type, because lost homogeneous deposition oxide layer and lost interface bond. Thus, in this study, thought depositate homogeneous oxide films above Ni-Cr samples surfaces polite previously, at plasma oxide environment. Six samples was oxided at 300 and 400ºC at one hour, and two samples was oxided in a comum chamber at 900ºC, and then were characterized: optical microscopic, electronic microscopic, micro hardness, and X ray difratometry. Colors stripes were observed at six samples plasma oxided and a grey surface those comum oxided, thus like: hardness increase, and several oxides from basic metals (Ni-Cr)

Theoretical analysis of the energy levels induced by oxygen vacancies and the doping process (Co, Cu and Zn) on SnO2 (110) surface models

Density functional calculation at B3LYP level was employed to study the surface oxygen vacancies and the doping process of Co, Cu and Zn on SnO2 (110) surface models. Large clusters, based on (SnO2)(15) models, were selected to simulate the oxidized (Sn15O30), half-reduced (Sn15O29) and the reduced (Sn15O28) surfaces. The doping process was considered on the reduced surfaces: Sn13Co2O28, Sn13Cu2O28 and Sn13Zn2O28. The results are analyzed and discussed based on a calculation of the energy levels along the bulk band gap region, determined by a projection of the monoelectron level structure on to the atomic basis set and by the density of states. This procedure enables one to distinguish the states coming from the bulk, the oxygen vacancies and the doping process, on passing from an oxidized to a reduced surface, missing bridge oxygen atoms generate electronic levels along the band gap region, associated with 5s/5p of four-/five-fold Sn and 2p of in-plane O centers located on the exposed surface, which is in agreement with previous theoretical and experimental investigations. The formation energy of one and two oxygen vacancies is 3.0 and 3.9 eV, respectively. (C) 2001 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Corrosion behavior of Ti-6Al-4V alloy treated by plasma immersion ion implantation process

Ti-6Al-4V alloy is one of the most frequently used Ti alloys with diverse applications in aerospace and biomedical areas due to its favorable mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. Meanwhile, its surface can stiffer intense corrosion caused by wear processes due to its poor tribological properties. Thus in the present study, PIII processing of Ti-6Al-4V alloy was carried out to evaluate its corrosion resistance in 3.5% NaCl solution. Two different sets of Ti-6Al-4V samples were PIII treated, varying the plasma gases and the treatment time. The corrosion behavior is correlated with the surface morphology, and the nitrogen content. SEM micrographs of the untreated sample reveal a typical two-phase structure. PIII processing promotes surface sputtering and the surface morphology is completely different for samples treated with N-2/H-2 mixture and N-2 only. The highest penetration of nitrogen (similar to 88 nm), corresponding to 33% of N-2 was obtained for the sample treated with N-2/H-2 mixture for 1:30 h. The corrosion behavior of the samples was investigated by a potentiodynamic polarization method. A large passive region of the polarization curves (similar to 1.5 V), associated with the formation of a protective film, was observed for all samples. The passive current density (similar to 3 x 10(-6) A cm(-2)) of the PIII-treated Ti-6Al-4V samples is about 10 times higher than for the untreated sample. This current value is still rather low and maintains good corrosion resistance. The anodic branches of the polarization curves for all treated Ti-6Al-4V samples demonstrate also that the oxide films break down at approximately 1.6 V, forming an active region. Although the sample treated by N-2/H-2 mixture for 1.30 It has thicker nitrogen enriched layer, better corrosion resistance is obtained for the PIII process performed with N, gas only. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The open-ended photothermal cell with LiTaO3 and its use in determining the photochemical loss

Comparative determinations of the noise equivalent power (NEP) of open-ended photothermal cells are performed using LiTaO3 and LiNbO3 crystals with and without indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent electrodes. Open-ended cells can be used for in vivo measurements, which are important when considering the achievability for continuous monitoring of a plant, verifying, for example, the effect of water stress or UV-B radiation on a leaf. We also show the results obtained with one of these cells in the determination of photochemical loss of plant leaves. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Deposição de filmes de ZrO2 modificados sobre substratos metálicos

This work makes use of the Pechini process for synthesis of the solutions and the dip-coating process for the addition of zirconium oxide films pure and doped cerium metal substrates. The metals with ceramic substrates were subjected to severe conditions of salinity. The x-ray fluorescence of the substrate showed a great diversity of chemical elements. The x-ray diffraction of the samples showed the phase of iron substrate because the thickness of nano-thin film. Tests using an LPR probe showed that the film presents with zirconia corrosion independent of film thickness. The substrates of ZrO2-doped ceria showed low chemical attack of the salt in films with less than 15 dives. The results imply that ultrathin films are shown in protecting metallic substrates

Influence of processing parameters on nanomaterials synthesis efficiency by a carbothermal reduction process

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Estudo da corrosão de cadinhos de SnO2-ZnO, na fusão de vidros contendo metais pesados

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Electrochemical stability and corrosion resistance of Ti-Mo alloys for biomedical applications

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)