Synthesis of yttrium doped zinc oxide nanorods for display, forensic and supercapacitor applications

Yttrium (1-7 mol %) doped Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) are synthesized by hydrothermal method followed by calcination. The synthesized NPs are characterized by different techniques. The Bragg reflections confirm the formation of a hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. The crystallite size is estimated by both Scherrer's and Williamson's-Hall plot methods. The surface morphology is decorated with nanorods of different sizes with sharp edges. As the dopant concentration increases changes in their alignment were also observed. The direct energy band gap determined from Wood and Tauc's relation was found to be increased from 3.183 to 3.197 eV with an increase in the dopant concentration. The photoluminescence emission spectra excited under 344 nm shows less intensity peaks in the blue and green region whereas the high-intensity peaks are observed in the red region. The concentration quenching is observed at 5 mol % yttrium concentration. This concentration quenching is caused due to dipole-dipole interaction. Further, the Commission Internationale de I'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates fall in a purplish-red region. The average Color Correlated Temperature (CCT) value of 3595 K clearly indicates that the present synthesized NPs might find an application in warm display technology as a nano phosphor material. For oxidation and redox peaks, cyclic voltammetry analysis is also carried out. Ion transport kinetics were disclosed by Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and super capacitance values were acquired using Galvanostatic Charge Discharge (GCD) analysis. For ZnO:Y (1-7 mol %) NPs, specific capacitance values were discovered to be in the range of 33 to 74 F/g with a change in dopant concentration. Therefore, the currently synthesized material may find use in both energy storage materials and the field of display technology and latent fingerprints (LFPs).