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. 2022 Oct 5;12(19):3484.
doi: 10.3390/nano12193484.

Synthesis of Silver, Gold, and Platinum Doped Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles by Pulsed Laser Ablation in Water

Rafaela Radičić  1 , Dejan Maletić  1 , Damjan Blažeka  1 , Julio Car  1 , Nikša Krstulović  1
Affiliations

Synthesis of Silver, Gold, and Platinum Doped Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles by Pulsed Laser Ablation in Water

Rafaela Radičić et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a simple two-step method for the synthesis of Ag, Au, and Pt-doped ZnO nanoparticles. The method is based on the fabrication of targets using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique where thin layers of metals (Ag, Pt, Au) have been deposited on a metal-oxide bulk substrate (ZnO). Such formed structures were used as a target for the production of doped nanoparticles (ZnO: Ag, ZnO: Au, and ZnO: Pt) by laser ablation in water. The influence of Ag, Au, and Pt doping on the optical properties, structure and composition, sizing, and morphology was studied using UV-Visible (UV-Vis) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The band-gap energy decreased to 3.06, 3.08, and 3.15 for silver, gold, and platinum-doped ZnO compared to the pure ZnO (3.2 eV). PL spectra showed a decrease in the recombination rate of the electrons and holes in the case of doped ZnO. SEM, TEM, and AFM images showed spherical-shaped nanoparticles with a relatively smooth surface. The XRD patterns confirm that Ag, Au, and Pt were well incorporated inside the ZnO lattice and maintained a hexagonal wurtzite structure. This work could provide a new way for synthesizing various doped materials.

Keywords: doped ZnO; gold (Au) doped ZnO; nanoparticles; platinum (Pt) doped ZnO; pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL); pulsed laser deposition (PLD); silver (Ag) doped ZnO; zinc oxide (ZnO).

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Two-step synthesis method of Ag, Au, and Pt-doped ZnO nanoparticles. First step is (a) pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of Ag, Au, and Pt on the ZnO substrate. As result, (b) a two-layered target (ZnO-metallic film) is formed. In the second step, (c,d) a two-layer target is ablated in water, forming (e) Ag, Au, and Pt-doped ZnO NPs.
Figure 2
Figure 2
UV-Vis absorption spectra of the pure and Ag, Au, and Pt doped ZnO nanoparticles. The inset represents the Tauc plot of the same spectra showing the band-gap energies of 3.06 eV, 3.08 eV, 3.15 eV, and 3.20 eV for the Ag: ZnO, Au: ZnO, Pt: ZnO, and pure ZnO, respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of pure and Ag, Au, and Pt doped ZnO NPs. In inset: Deconvolution plot in UV and visible part of PL spectrum (magenta line represent cumulative fit peak).
Figure 4
Figure 4
X-ray diffraction patterns of the Ag, Au, and Pt doped ZnO nanoparticles.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The Ag, Au, and Pt doped ZnO peak shifts compared to the pure ZnO peaks.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) Williamson-Hall and (b) size-strain analysis of pure and doped ZnO NPs. Using linear fit to the data, the crystallite size and strain are extracted and presented in Table 3.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Wide XPS spectra of ZnO nanoparticles doped with Ag (black), Au (red), and Pt (blue). In insets: identification of Ag, Au, and Pt.
Figure 8
Figure 8
High resolution XPS spectra of doped ZnO nanoparticles with fitted spectra for (a) Zn 2p, (b) O 1s, (c) C 1s, (d) Ag 3d, (e) Au 4f, and (f) Pt 4f. Red and green curves represent fit peaks while blue curve represents cumulative fit peak.
Figure 9
Figure 9
TEM images of (a,b) pure and (c,d) Pt-doped ZnO nanoparticles.
Figure 10
Figure 10
SEM images and size-distributions of (a) pure ZnO, (b) Ag-doped ZnO, (c) Au-doped ZnO, and (d) Pt-doped ZnO.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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